ArtScape: The Irish Chamber Orchestra is to be the orchestra-in-residence at the new Cork School of Music (CSM), which will open for classes on September 3rd, writes Mary Leland.
Back in a single, state-of-the-art venue after a six-year exile from its home on Union Quay, the school will just about have time to catch its breath before the events marking the formal opening by Minister for Education Mary Hanafin on September 14th, a day that will also see the beginning of the Carducci Quartet Festival.
This festival will include the Irish premiere of Ian Wilson's unbroken white lineon Friday, September 14th, at the Curtis Auditorium, and on Saturday the new Flute Sonata by CSM graduate David Wallace, the first Hochtief Fellow in Composition at the school and a former Composition Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Performed by Louisa Dennehy, accompanied by Ciara Moroney on piano, it is one of three lunchtime concerts on Saturday, while later that day Fiona Shaw will take part in the festival ensemble arrangement of Carnival of the Animalsby Saint-Saëns in the Curtis Auditorium, which is the venue for the Carducci concert on Sunday September 16th.
In its new role, the Irish Chamber Orchestra will give monthly concerts at the school as well as establishing an interactive programme with senior string students.
The visual arts will also have a prominent place in the new building, where a joint exhibition by artists Elizabeth Charleson and David Connolly will open on September 14th. In the meantime, plans are going ahead for decking the walls with paintings and prints selected from the collection amassed by its parent body, the Cork Institute of Technology. Some of the wall spaces within the new building soar through five floors, covering 10,500sq m, and a sculptural commission to decorate one of these is currently under consideration. As if to consolidate the relationships between the frozen music of the school's architecture and its long tradition in music education in Cork, a handmade clavichord has joined the instruments in the organ and early music department. It was donated as a parting gift by the distinguished American painter Frank Russell, who has left his part-time home on the Sheep's Head peninsula in west Cork for his permanent residence in New York, and who has also donated his large collection of early keyboard scores to the school.
Three aspects of Edinburgh
How far can you commodify art? And if you went down that road, where would it lead? These are the interesting questions coming from Edinburgh, where businessman and board member of Screen Scotland and the Scottish Arts Council Charles Lovatt has suggested that critics give Edinburgh Festival Fringe shows a value-for-money rating. This comes on foot of criticism that the Fringe is becoming too expensive and less "fringey".
"If we do star ratings in terms of artistic quality, we should also do something about value for money," he's quoted as saying in the Scotsman. "I went to a one-man show at the Pleasance Dome, where I paid £9.50 for a ticket for one hour of perfectly average Fringe entertainment, whereas I was at the King's Theatre for a National Theatre of Scotland production of The Bacchaeand got two hours of absolutely outstanding entertainment for £8."
Lovatt understands that promoters and organisers face rising costs, but "there is an issue around the fact that the lowest cost production is a one-man stand-up comedy show where a guy stands in front of a microphone. Many of the one-man shows are not good value for money."
On the other hand, Tommy Sheppard of Edinburgh's The Stand comedy club said: "When it comes to two people you have never heard of both doing a similar format and length of show in a similar show, then I think price ought to be a consideration. The problem is it's very rarely the artist who sets the price, it's the venue or promoter."
Laura Cameron Lewis at the Pleasance added: "Someone's enjoyment of a show is a subjective experience and you can't arbitrarily put a value on that." A Fringe spokesman said the inclusion of any possible guide to value should be "left to the choice of individual publications and their editorial teams".
• It's a real family affair for the Tiernans at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe, writes Brian Boyd. Former Perrier winner Tommy; his sister, actor Niamh Tiernan; and his cousin, comedian and actor Eleanor Tiernan, have written an absorbing new play, Help, which is being very favourably reviewed by the local press in Scotland. Tommy doesn't appear in the show, but Niamh and Eleanor put on powerhouse performances in a show that comically deconstructs the angst and neurosis of a stage performer.
Niamh and Eleanor play two parts of the same person - a woman who is racked with self-doubt about her ability to perform in front of an audience. A weighty piece, the show examines almost existential questions about the nature of identity and performance. Splendidly acted, the show is very briskly paced and features some wonderful visual gags. Very much a theatre piece (it is listed under that category in the Fringe programme), the show includes a 15-minute stand-up performance by Eleanor - and she ably displays that she is one of the brightest and most promising new Irish comic talents. Both Niamh and Eleanor have been considerably encouraged by the play's reception, even if crowd sizes could be better - it is on at the Gilded Balloon venue at 1.30pm. The two are planning to bring Help to an Irish venue soon, and have plans to return to the Fringe next year in another collaborative effort. A thoroughly enjoyable and thoughtful piece of work, Helpmarks the pair out as splendid talents to be watched.
• Also in Edinburgh, following Druid's Fringe First for The Walworth Farce, and Andrew Maxwell's If.comedy nomination, this week's Total Theatre Award nominations included two Irish shows: Pasodos Dance Company was nominated in the Best Physical Performance category for Sorry, Love!,and Playgroup's The Art of Swimmingwas nominated for Best Small Scale Work, though both were pipped at the post for the gongs.
Anna Livia gets kiss of life
"Anna Livia is back!" said mezzo soprano Bernadette Greevy, founder and artistic director of the Anna Livia Dublin International Opera Festival when she launched the 2007 programme recently, writes Michael Dervan.
The festival, which was held for the first time in 2000, only managed two more seasons before a shortage of funds forced it into semi-hibernation, with smaller events keeping its name sporadically in the minds of the public. Now, after what Greevy called "a long and difficult journey back", the festival, which received €250,000 from the Department of Arts in late 2005 as "a once-off, exceptional measure and in a cultural tourism context", will present productions of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoorand Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perlesat the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, from Sunday, September 2nd until Sunday, September 9th.
The familiar Anna Livia creative teams are back. Roberto Oswald directs both operas and is responsible for the sets and lighting. Anibal Lapis is designing the costumes, and the conductor is Franz-Paul Decker. Leïla in the Bizet will be performed by US-based Dublin soprano Anne O'Byrne, and Nadir by Todd Wilander. Lucia in the Donizetti will be performed by Angela Gilbert, and Edgardo by Scott Ramsay. Full details on 01-6617544 or at www.dublinopera.com.
Great outdoors art in Dublin
If you're in Dublin city this weekend, keep an eye out for some of the Out of Site events. The festival of live art in public spaces has been running since Wednesday, with more than 30 performances by 16 national and international artists in the city centre, Temple Bar, the Liberties, Smithfield and other places, exploring how people in Dublin navigate, negotiate and experience urban life. The live art projects will range from intimate happenings on quiet streets and alternative tours of the alleyways and side streets of Temple Bar. Out of Site had its debut in last year's Dublin Fringe Festival, and curator Michelle Browne says the object is "to bring live art out of the gallery and onto the street, offering the general public the opportunity to experience contemporary art in their everyday lives". The festival is supported by the Arts Council, Dublin City Council and the Goethe Institut, while yesterday's public seminar, Risk, on the role of risk in a live art practice, was in association with Create. For more information, and where to find the various happenings, see www.outofsite.info.