Presented by Adelaide Festival Centre in association with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
Reviewed 14 December 2018
It’s that time of the year again! What a wonderful way to get into the Christmas spirit, a visit to the Christmas Proms with all the trimmings. Directed by Christopher Horsey and conducted by Guy Noble this year’s Proms have everything you could wish for, colour, sparkle and carols.
The evening would have been delightful without all the trimmings if we had just closed our eyes and listened to the wonderful Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. They were in a festive mood with Christmas hats and a sense of fun on display, joined by the glamorous Lucy Durack and talented duo of Sean Mulligan and Jan DiPetro they gave us carols and songs to put us in the festive mood.
Designer Kathryn Sproul helped set the mood with her delightful stage settings. The decorations, baubles, stars and a giant wreath, revealed themselves during the opening numbers adding a little magic to the scene. The placement of the orchestra left plenty of room for the dancing which followed. Lucy started us off with I Need a Little Christmas, then with Sean and Jan gave us a fun version of Baby It’s Cold Outside (in the manner it was written), the boys dazzled us with some fancy tapping to Fiddle Faddle and more; all accompanied by carols for the audience to join in.
After the interval there were more treats in store with the Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker Suite with six young ballerinas from Barbara Jane’s Ballet School joined by Mietta Brookman featured as the little girl. The Night Before Christmas featured the man in the red suit, dancing very ably with Mietta and a final surprise was the Sandpaper Ballet by Sean and Jan. Lucy stunned throughout with her beautiful voice and fantastic wardrobe.
Everyone left smiling and humming the Christmas songs, another successful year of the Proms and a great way to launch into the Festive Season – Merry Christmas!
Reviewed by Fran Edwards
Twitter: @franeds
More News
