A look at what's happening in the world of art...
> Opera favourites
St Kilda Brass teams with senior vocal students from the University of Otago for A Night at the Opera, on Saturday night.
The concert, at the Mayfair Theatre includes classics by Mozart, Puccini, Delibes, Bizet, Rossini and Wagner, among others. The concert, which starts at 7.30pm, is conducted by Steve Miles. Tickets are available from the Regent Theatre.
That other show about antiques is returning, with dates around Otago. The Antiques Rogue Show 2010 twists the format of the familiar BBC show of a similar name to comic effect. Patrick Duffy and Greg Ellis ask the public to bring along their favourite family antiques for an expert opinion of their worth.
Their evaluations have no relevance to real history or artistic appreciation or any worthwhile knowledge whatsoever.
The show stops in Wanaka's Cinema Paradiso on Tuesday, at 8.30pm; at Arrowtown's Athenaeum Hall on Wednesday at 7.30pm; at Gore's Longford Function Centre on Friday August 27 at 8pm; at Coronation Hall, Mosgiel 8pm on Saturday, August 28; at the Oamaru Opera House on Sunday August 29 at 7.30pm; and at Waimate on Tuesday August 31, at 7.30pm, at the Criterion Hotel.
> Guitar slinger
Politically-fired folk singer David Rovics brings his take on revolution to Sammy's on Saturday.
The Connecticut-born troubadour developed his flat-picking style busking in the Boston subways. His essays are published on website CounterPunch, while his songs have been downloaded, free, more than a million times.
Rovics is on stage from 10.30pm.
> Let there be light
None Project Space is running a studio-lighting workshop tonight for "enthusiastic techno-phobes". The workshop, from 6.30pm to 9.30pm, will cover the basics of the art. No experience or prior knowledge is required.
None is at 24 Stafford St, Dunedin.
> Active in Otago
Otago artists are well-represented in an exhibition "Artists as Activists" at the NZ Academy of Fine Arts Galleries, in Wellington, that opens tomorrow.
Among those featured are Project Hayes opponents Brian Turner and Grahame Sydney, Dunedin painter Ewan McDougall and poet Sarah McDougall, who composed a poem about Project Aqua. The show runs until mid-September.
> In the running
The documentary Donated to Science, by Dunedin physician Paul Trotman, made in connection with his exhibition at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, "Still Life: The Art of Anatomy", is nominated for a Qantas Film and Television Award in the popular documentary section.
Another Dunedin-produced documentary, The Unnatural History of the Kakapo, is nominated in the festival section.
Winners are announced on September 18 at a flash red-carpet ceremony in Auckland.
