Local poet Maria Jastrzębska will be reading from her new collection ‘At the Library of Memories’ as part of LGBT History Month, along with Evlynn Sharp of New Writing South.
The event is free, includes a free glass of of Barefoot Wine and there will also be an opportunity for people to perform their own work.
7pm for 7.30pm start at Saltdean Library, Saltdean Lido, Saltdean
For more information view:
This month I want to highlight some rather special artists who are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year – The Tallis Scholars, founded in 1973 by conductor Peter Phillips. They are launching their celebratory world tour with a concert at St Paul’s Cathedral on March 7 – if you can make it, I recommend you do not miss this one.
They will be performed loved works such as Tallis’ 40-part motet Spem in Alium, and Allegri’s Misere, as well as premieres of works by Gabriel Jackson, Eric Whitacre, and the London premiere of Robin Walker’s I have thee by the hand, O man, a 40-part homage to Tallis’ piece. I’ll be there, and a review will follow.
They’ve also released a great 2-CD volume called Renaissance Radio, including highlights of recordings from their vast back catalogue. And they’ve put together a great programme. There’s lots of Tallis, obviously, and Palestrina, Victoria and Sheppard are here too.
They commence the first disc with Allegri’s MIsere – but perhaps not as you know it. The version we are familiar with, so the story goes, is based on Mozart’s transcription of the ornaments as performed in the Sistene Chapel in Rome. After many years of performing the work, with over 300 concert performances under her belt, soprano Deborah Roberts (yes, our own Co-Director of Brighton Early Music Festival) added her own startling and striking embellishments, providing a wonderful twist to an old favourite.
It’s hard to pick out favourites from this collection of 47 tracks – but apart from the Allegri, I’d have to include Mouton’s beautiful Salva nos, Domine (you can find a review of their full Mouton CD on my blog – nicks-classical-notes.blogspot.co.uk), Brumel’s Agnus Dei II from his amazing Earthquake Mass, and Cornysh’s Ave Maria for men’s voices from the Eton Choirbook.
The recordings span 26 years, and the roll call of singers runs to 60 plus, including many singers who have gone on since to solo careers (such as Mark Padmore, Charles Daniels and Michael Chance). If this wonderful ensemble is new to you, I highly recommend you start with this CD, get to the St Paul’s concert if you can, and then explore their massive back catalogue of wonderful recordings of Renassiance music and more.
A new customer centre in Hove Town Hall will bring together the council and police, making services much more convenient for the local community to access.
This development is part of the council’s modernisation project and Sussex Police’s ‘Serving Sussex’ change programme, which are both underway to improve services for residents.
The move sees the local Hove Neighbourhood Policing Team returning to the town hall. When an earlier Hove Town Hall opened in 1882 it contained a police station where it remained alongside the rate collector’s office and town clerk’s office until the police station in Holland Road opened in 1964.
The Customer Centre, which opens on February 14, will contain a number of council services, including parking, planning, building control, private sector housing, taxi licensing and highways, as well as general enquiries. Staff from all these different services will be available to offer help to customers face-to-face.
Policing services previously located in Holland Road, Hove, will also be available at the centre.
Police Enquiry Officers will be on hand so that the public can report incidents and stolen property and get crime prevention advice.
The Hove Neighbourhood Policing Team will be working from a base located inside the building too.
Many people are now choosing to use public services online. Customers will be able to access both council and police services free online in the self-service area of the centre.
The development of Hove Town Hall provides a much more welcoming environment with a modern, accessible design and staff on hand to welcome customers and direct them to the service they require.
The move will offer more flexible choices, enabling people to find a number of services in one place. The move will improve service, save money and space, reduce the council’s carbon footprint and enable Sussex Police to work from a more central location.
Council leader Jason Kitcat said:
“Hove Customer Centre will enable our residents to contact a whole range of public services from one location with extended opening hours. It’s a fantastic opportunity for the council to establish closer working relationships which will help us deliver joined up services.
“Creating two main customer centres in Hove and in Brighton is improving access and services for residents whilst also providing significant savings. That means the council can maintain essential services at a time when government is reducing our budgets.”
Chief Superintendent Graham Bartlett, Divisional Commander for Brighton and Hove, said:
“Local people told us they want to see more of their neighbourhood policing team out in their area and to be able to talk to them in a convenient location. Working together in the heart of the community in Hove means people can expect a better service, as police will be working jointly with partners at the council to identify and tackle any problems. Together, the partner agencies get a full picture of what is happening and can draw on different expertise to help the community. This is just one example of changes happening within Sussex Police to modernise the Force and improve service.”
The new centre in Hove follows on from the opening of Brighton’s Customer Centre in Bartholomew Square and the grouping together of services at the Moulsecoomb and Whitehawk Hubs. These initiatives will assist with the council’s overall modernisation strategy to make savings of around £725,000 a year as well as providing an opportunity for all services to review their business processes for the benefit of customers.
This move is also part of Sussex Police’s programme of change to modernise the force and improve service to the public, whilst making savings as their overall budget is reduced. The aim is to make sure policing teams are out working in the heart of the community and not stuck behind desks in police stations – this move is one instance of this principle in action.
Hove Town Hall is open to the public Monday to Friday 8.45am to 5pm.
Why are people gay? What really goes on behind closed doors in a clap clinic? How can we ensure children get the sex education they need in a responsible way – and are they too sexualised?
All these topics and more will be explored by some of the UK’s top sex educators, scientists and experts at the Science of Sex Weekend during Brighton Science Festival 2013, on February 9 and 10.
The weekend opens with Robin Ince, who slips between the pages of sex manuals, erotic books and pulp fiction to bring you some of the strangest passages of sex from numerous books rescued from skips and charity shops. Expect shock, confusion and possibly revulsion as you hear of sex during killer crab attacks, liaisons with donkeys and even a little De Sade.
Saturday, February 9 sees a whole day of sex-inspired debate and analysis.
Speakers include:
• Dr Malcom VandenBurg, who helped develop Viagra, treated one of the UK’s first AIDS patients and has advised on numerous sex-related court cases
• Susan Qulliam, who co-wrote the updated Joy of Sex
• Robert Page, creator of the world famous Lovers’ Guide series of sex education films; and
• Benedict Garrett, sex campaigner, Dreamboy and Big Brother contestant.
Saturday evening sees Brooke Magnanti, better known as Belle de Jour, explore the truth behind many common beliefs about sex, based on her latest book, The Sex Myth. Her academic credentials and evidence-based approach may come as a surprise to people who picture her as Billy Piper – prepare to have your mind opened and your beliefs challenged.
The weekend culminates with a screening of Lovers’ Guide 3D – the world’s first ever 3D sex ed film – complete with producer, Robert Page, and scriptwriter, Emily Dubberley, available for Q&As.
For more information view:
Opera director Ellen Kent celebrated 20 years of bringing opera to the masses with a “gothic, melodramatic” production of Puccini’s Tosca at The Theatre Royal.
This traditional staging of what was once called a “shabby little shocker”, saw Ellen’s company strain every drip of drama from one of Puccini’s greatest, most macabre, works.
Marina Tonina was powerful as the multi-faceted eponymous Tosca, deftly scaling the emotional, and vocal, gamut between fragility and courage. Initially draped in rose-bud pink, she blossomed into harlot red in the later scenes as her passion, and the situation, became more hopeless.
Tenor Sorin Lupu tackled Cavaradossi, Tosca’s doomed lover, with fool-hardiness in his characterisation and ringing tones during the challenging romanza Recondita Armonia (Act One).
The humble, dim-lit, chapel of Act One was countered by the plummy opulence of Scarpia’s palace in Act Two, wherein Kent unleashed an arsenal of Victorian theatre tricks, including Tosca’s cantana sang behind a gauze and not off stage, utilised to add depth and intrigue to what for many can be an overly wordy second act.
Vladimir Dragos revelled as the dastardly villain, the lecherous Scarpia, a role that can often veer into pantomime. His vocal prowess and menacing stance roused unease within the theatre, particularly during the ultimatum he offers to Tosca, resulting in a macabre twist.
Kent succeeded in conveying a sense of desolation during Act Three, however the ‘firing squad’ felt lifeless, and those in the Gods (unforgivably) missed, save for a flutter of silk, Tosca’s final, infamous, act of defiance.
Whilst as an opera, Tosca may not have the crowd-pleasing “chorus of Hebrew slaves” of Nabucco, nor the “triumphal march” of Aida, it does benefit from gorgeous choral scenes (brought by a local Brighton choir) and by having not one, but two of the finest arias: the prayer Vissi D’arte (an aria part of any soprano’s repertoire), was performed with earnest pleading by Tonina, and Lupu’s E lucevan le stelle trembled with desperation.
For future tour dates, view: www.ellenkent.com/how-to-book.html
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