Sizzling Sydney

In the words of its Irish-born director, Fergus Lineham, the “largest and most ambitious” program for the Sydney Festival to date was launched at the Famous Spiegeltent last Friday night.

The festival, celebrating its 31^st year, is held in January at a range of venues across Sydney.

“You’re probably wondering what these vacuous, shallow Sydneysiders are doing launching their festival here in intellectual Melbourne,” Lineham joked in his opening remarks, before an invited audience of champagne-sipping arts workers and media (and very nice bubbly it was too).

He went on to explain that a Sydney launch had been held the previous day.

“Seeing as there are no sponsors or politicians present here today, we can dive right in,” the Dubliner said, and dive in he did, presenting a fascinating overview of the diverse events he has programmed into the 2007 line-up.

Lineham’s second Sydney Festival strikes a careful balance between accessibility and high culture. For the serious connoisseur, there’s Russia’s Maly Drama Theatre presenting Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya; Swiss director Christoph Marthaler’s Seemanslieder, a co-production from the Netherlands and Belgium exploring the threat and promise of the ocean; and a South Korean company’s take on Shakespeare. Elsewhere there are pyrotechnics, a new kids’ musical by satirist John Clarke, and a strong musical lineup featuring Rosanne Cash (daughter of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash) and Sweden’s e.s.t. (Esbjörn Svensson Trio) who “chart new territory between acoustic jazz piano and the dance beats of electronica.”

The event generating the most buzz to date is a theatrical presentation of Lou Reed’s seminal album Berlin, performed by Reed and a band of long-time collaborators, featuring a choir led by Antony of Antony and the Johnsons. Tickets for this show are already selling fast, so Reed fans would be wise to jump on to www.sydneyfestival.org.au straight away if they want to catch one of the three scheduled performances.

Sydney Festival 2007 runs from January 6 – 27.

For more arts news see my weekly column Art of the City in Beat magazine, free every Wednesday.