This weekend I want to go to . . . Auckland Town Hall
Aotea Centre
It’ll be the stuff of fantasy when one of our leading cirque companies, The Dust Palace, joins forces with the mighty Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra for its latest show. Set to music like Handel’s Sarabande, Respighi’s The Nightingale and Grieg’s shimmering Morning Mood, Dawn is an enchanted tale of a young woman searching for her father before darkness consumes him. Expect magical creatures, death-defying acrobatics and cirque artistry and beautiful music. APO and The Dust Palace: Dawn, ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, Friday, 8pm and Saturday, 2pm. And across Aotea Square, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is also playing around with stories both magical and monstrous in its Frankenstein!! concert. The show opens with the playful Toy Symphony, where instruments include a toy trumpet, ratchet and cuckoo, before Stravinsky’s Circus Polka: For a Young Elephant — originally performed by 50 elephants and 50 ballerinas — transports us to an era prior to active animal rights organisations. Then conductor and chansonnier HK Gruber wraps things up with an interpretation of the Frankenstein!! story which promises “pan-demonium”. NZ Symphony Orchestra, Frankenstein!! Auckland Town Hall, Friday, 7.30pm.
Sculptureum and Auckland Art Gallery
Orchestral music fans really are spoiled for choice this weekend. If it’s not enough to have the APO and NZSO in town on the same weekend, NZTrio is back with the second concert of its Tectonic Series. In the 250th year commemorations of first encounters between Ma¯ ori and European, each 2019 concert charts a musical course from Captain Cook’s English homeland to Aotearoa focusing on the forces that shape environments and communities. Tectonic Impact includes the very English sounds of Frank Bridge’s parlour music contrasted with NZTrio’s latest commission from Martin Lodge who explores the evolving Ma¯ ori-Pakeha relationship, and an earlier commission from kiwi composing legend Ross Harris. NZTrio, Tectonic Impact, Friday, 7pm and Auckland Art Gallery, Sunday, 6pm.
Queen Street and Aotea Square
Be warned — if you’re coming into the city this weekend, it may be a lot more vibrant than usual (and parking could be harder to find). It’s the 18th Auckland Diwali Festival, the free and family-friendly occasion which has grown to be one of the country’s largest cultural events. Packed full of bright lights, spirited dance performances and tasty Indian food, it ends on Sunday evening with a mega fireworks display. Diwali Festival, Saturday and Sunday.
The Civic
Tried and true often sums up the musicals that land in Auckland and while there’s nothing wrong with traditional favourites done well, it’s always refreshing to see — and hear — something more contemporary or different. So how about a punk rock musical? The Tony Award winning American Idiot ,a collaboration between the band Green Day and director Michael Mayer, is the story of three boyhood friends, youthful disillusionment and doubt about the safety and security of all-American society and government. Written post 9/11, it’s probably more relevant now than it was then while songs like American Idiot, 21 Guns, Jesus of Suburbia, Holiday, Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Wake Me Up When September Ends are modern classics. American Idiot, Civic, until Sunday, October 20.