Chamber Music New Zealand supergroup Elixir served up a smorgasbord of songs yesterday at the lunchtime launch of acts at the Southern Lakes Festival of Colour.
The vastly experienced trio of soprano Kate Lineham, pianist Rachel Thomson and clarinettist Moira Hurst treated listeners to a variety of short pieces from classical and opera to folk and cabaret.
Lineham's pure voice and Hurst's joyful playing easily outweighed early sound-system glitches, creating magic with Ralph Vaughan Williams' Three Vocalises, the highlight being Prelude.
The trio also had fun with some of Benjamin Britten's experimental theatre works, making the difficult appear easy.
Stylish, varied and delightful, Elixir provided a highly appropriate opener for the culture-filled week ahead.
• Last night I saw Guru of Chai, the latest from Indian Ink, whose Krishnan's Dairy was the first in a line of innovative and multi-layered plays.
Guru is no exception. Actor/writer Jacob Rajan and director/writer Justin Lewis' new hero is Kutisar, a humble chai seller at Bangalore Central Station.
Kutisar is a story-teller extraordinaire, promising his audience that by the end of the performance all their problems will be gone, but he also warns that those who seek enlightenment often find only vomiting and diarrhoea.
As usual, Rajan plays a whole array of other characters, this time without masks and costume changes, supported ably by musician and sound effects whiz Dave Ward.
With typical perfect timing, Rajan recounts the tragi-comic story of an innocent but independent young girl who becomes involved in a life-long struggle between good and evil.
Guru is a spellbinding story that turns into a thriller that should not be missed.
- Nigel Zega
