Festival Director: Leo Schofield
With new director Leo Schofield preparing his first Sydney Festival program, plenty of new exciting ventures were undertaken in 1998. Open Air Cinema had its first series of screenings on the Fleet Steps, at Mrs Macquarie’s Point, Royal Botanic Gardens and The Domain. The $10 Proms program took place for the first time, with a series of seven concerts featuring leading Australian and international artists like TaikOz, Alpha Ensemble, Andreas Scholl, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra and Australian Youth Orchestra.
New venues popped up including Bacardi Festival de Cuba at Darling Harbour, featuring free party nights Thursday to Saturday during the Festival. Absolut Waterfront became the brand new cabaret club at the Sydney Opera House and Government House staged a series of unique recitals.
International and local talent was championed with Cloudstreet directed by Neil Armfield in its world premiere, Bernadette Peters made her Australian debut with the Sydney Opera House Orchestra, and Sir George Martin conducted and arranged a two-hour concert of Beatles classics in All You Need Is Beatles.
THEATRE
The Beauty Queen Of Leenane
The Leenane Trilogy: Three new plays by Martin McDonagh
Druid Theatre Company of Galway
A Skull In Connemara
The Leenane Trilogy: Three new plays by Martin McDonagh
Druid Theatre Company of Galway
The Lonesome West
The Leenane Trilogy: Three new plays by Martin McDonagh
Druid Theatre Company of Galway
Cloudstreet
Adapted by Nick Enright and Justin Monjo
From the novel by Tim Winton
Directed by Neil Armfield
Company B Belvoir
An Ideal Husband
Sir Peter Hall's production of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband
The Peter Hall Company
Trial By Jury
Operetta in one act by W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan
Directed by and starring Dennis Olsen
Titanic!
Theater Titanick
Le Cercle Invisible
The Umbilical Brothers
DANCE
Heroes, Sweet Fields, 66
Twyla Tharp Dance
The Fugue, Roy's Joys, Sweet Fields
Twyla Tharp Dance
Gypsy Passion
Joaquín Cortés
Dein Perry's Steel City
Directed and choreographed by Dein Perry
Production designed by Brian Thomson
Sydney Theatre Company
MUSIC
Andreas Scholl
Associate artist: Paul Dyer (harpsichord)
Andreas Scholl with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra
Director: Paul Dyer
Australian Chamber Orchestra
Conductor: Richard Tognetti
Australian Youth Orchestra
Conductor: Tan Li-Hua
Organ: David Pereira
Brian Asawa
Associate artist: Sharolyn Kimmorley (piano)
Recitals at Government House
Violin: Alexei Bruni
Piano: Leonid Ogrinchuk
Recitals at Government House
Soprano: Emma Matthews
Piano: Kate Young
Recitals at Government House: Rousset & Rameau
Christophe Rousset
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Barry Wordsworth
Guitar: Slava Grigoryan
Twilight Chamber Music
Alfons Kontarsky (piano), Dene Olding (violin), Bernard Hartog (violin), Wolfram Christ (viola), Esther Van Stralen (viola), Olad Maninger (cello), Rudolf Watzel (double bass), Ulf Rodenhauser (clarinet), Gustavo Nunez (bassoon), Radovan Vlatovic (french horn), Australian National Academy
Twilight Chamber Music
Piano: Ben Martin
Twilight Chamber Music
Diana Doherty (oboe), Ulf Rodenhauser (clarinet), David Miller (piano), Bernard Hartog (violin), Esther Van Stralen (viola), Olaf Maninger (cello), Australian National Academy of Music
Twilight Chamber Music
Dimity Hall (violin), Catherine McCorkill (clarinet), Ben Martin (piano)
Twilight Chamber Music
Goldner String Quartet
Twilight Chamber Music
Riley Lee (shakuhachi), Geoff Collins (flute), Marshall McGuire (harp)
A Joyful Noise: A Celebration Of Gospel Music
McCollough Sons of Thunder and Emmit Powell & The Gospel Elites
Admeto
Admeto Ré di Tessaglia by George Frideric Handel
Les Talens Lyrique
Director: Christophe Rousset
Al Jarreau
Al Jarreau and his band with the Sydney Opera House Orchestra
All You Need Is Beatles
Conducted and arranged by Sir George Martin
Sydney Opera House Orchestra
Including Glenn Shorrock, Tommy Emmanuel
Alpha Ensemble
Conductor: Roland Peelman
Baritone: Lyndon Terracini
Bernadette Peters
Kázohinia
Piano: Michael Kieran Harvey
Adrian Luca, Dominic Harvey
Oumou Sangare
Russian National Orchestra
Conductor: Mikhail Pletnev
Guest conductor: Eri Klas
Piano (Programs 1 & 3): Nikolai Lugansky
Symphony Under The Stars
Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Barry Wordsworth
Soloist: Lisa Harper-Brown (soprano)
Taikoz in Monochrome
Taikoz, Synergy
Tamworth Comes To Town
The Lindsays
The Lindsay String Quartet
OPERA
ESSO Opera in The Park - The Force Of Destiny
Opera Australia principal artists, Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra Conductor: Carlo Felice Cillario
FILM
Open Air Cinema
MAGIC
Ricky Jay
ART
An Exquisite Eye
Ferdinand Bauer
Chihuly: The Sydney Project
Dale Chihuly
Contemporary Botanical Artists: The Shirley Sherwood Collection
Convict Love Tokens
Fluent
Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Yvonne Koolmatrie, Judy Watson
Klein
Yves Klein
Orientalism: From Delacroix to Klee
Encore
Choi Jeong-Hwa
Plasticiens Volants
CELEBRATIONS
Absolut Waterfront
Australia Day Spectacular
Bacardi Festival de Cuba
BBC Hardware Flags Afloat Parade
Darling Harbour Celebrates Australia Day
St George Bank's Hyde Park North and Sydney Eastside Celebrations
SPORT
Australia Day Regatta
Coca Cola Amatil Ferrython
NRMA Motorfest
Tall Ships Race
The Parade of Sail
