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OPENING WEEKEND | London, Southbank Centre

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It’s back to school! Come to the Southbank Centre for an amazing programme Thu 21 – Sun 24 Sep 2023, and enjoy a multi-buy discount for this classical music mini music festival. Classical music is an integral part of the Southbank Centre, and the “Opening Weekend” will celebrate the full breadth of the art form today.

Toks Dada, Head of Classical Music at the Southbank Centre, explains the success of the Southbank Centre’s “Opening Weekend” last year: “Our goal is to create as many ways for as many different people as possible to experience this wonderful art form called classical music, building on the success of our first Opening Weekend last year – during which we welcomed over 10,000 people across our spaces, many of whom visited the Southbank Centre for the very first time.”

The weekend will feature two major choral works, with Resident Orchestra the Philharmonia Orchestra, performing Verdi’s Requiem (21 Sept, RFH), and Resident Orchestra the London Philharmonic Orchestra performing Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with soprano Sally Matthews, mezzo-soprano Christine Rice and the London Philharmonic Choir (23 Sept, RFH).

Former Southbank Centre Resident Artist and star of 2022/23, Víkingur Olafsson, arrives in London launching his global Goldberg Variations tour (22 Sept, RFH).

Returning Resident Artists, Manchester Collective, make their season debut with a double bill beginning with Different Trains, featuring work by Barber, Steve Reich, Cassandra Miller and a world premiere by Jasmin Kent Rodgman co-commissioned by the Southbank Centre and Manchester Collective (22 Sept, QEH).

They will then move into the Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer for a classical-inspired club night featuring music from titans of minimalism including Steve Reich and Philip Glass.

The Opening Weekend will also feature organist Carol Williams in Mad Rush (23 Sept, RFH) with a programme of organ classics, jazz arrangements, and Williams’ own compositions.

The Multi-Story Orchestra perform RPS award-winning The Endz (23 Sept, QEH), telling the story of two friends torn apart by gang violence in London, and a new version of immersive Living Programme Notes (24 Sept, Clore Ballroom) providing a deep dive into classical music for young people and their families.

The Philharmonia Orchestra appears a second time during the weekend with a programme including Shostakovich’s Concerto for piano, trumpet & strings featuring pianist Seong-Jin Cho and the Philharmonia’s Principal Trumpet Jason Evans (24 Sept, RFH).

The Hermes Experiment make their Opening Weekend debut (24 Sept, PUR), including a new work by composer Elaine Mitchener, commissioned by the Southbank Centre.

Lastly, violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, one of the new Resident Artists for 2023/24, will close the weekend (24 Sept, QEH) with her international trio featuring clarinettist Reto Bieri, and pianist Polina Leschenko, with a programme including a new work composed by Kopatchinskaja herself.

Playing across the Southbank Centre Thu 21 – Sun 24 Sep 2023.

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CABARET | London, Kit Kat Club

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Well, isn’t this exciting! “Wilkommen” and “Bienvenue” to Jake Shears and Rebecca Lucy Taylor aka Self Esteem, who will play the roles of The Emcee and Sally Bowles in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club from Monday 25 September 2023.

Singer, songwriter, actor and writer Jake Shears is best known as the lead singer of the multiplatinum-selling, Grammy-nominated, Brit award-winning glam rock band Scissor Sisters. The band’s hits include ‘Comfortably Numb’, ‘Take Your Mama’, ‘Let’s Have A Kiki’ and the UK number one hit ‘I Don’t Feel Like Dancing’.  As Self Esteem, Rebecca Lucy Taylor won BBC Introducing’s 2022 Artist Of The Year award, and her album Prioritise Pleasure (2021) was crowned both The Guardian and Sunday Times Culture’s Album of the Year.

Also joining the company on 25 September are Wilf Scolding as Ernst Ludwig, Jessica Kirton as Fraulein Kost/Fritzie, Liv Alexander as Texas, Natalie Chua as Frenchie, Taite-Elliot Drew as Hans, Damon Gould as Victor, El Haq Latief as Helga, and Travis Ross as Bobby, joining Laura Delany as Rosie, Grant Neal as Herman/Max and Hicaro Nicolai as Lulu. The cast is completed by Rebecca Lisewski, Ela Lisondra, Nic Myers, Andy Rees, Toby Turpin and Patrick Wilden.

This unique production of Cabaret opened in December 2021 to critical and audience acclaim, widely praised as the ultimate theatrical experience. In April 2022 the production won a record-breaking seven Olivier Awards, the most for any musical revival in Olivier history. The production has also won three prestigious Critics Circle Awards as well as the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Design for designer Tom Scutt.  Transforming one of London’s most famous theatres with an in-the-round auditorium and reimagined spaces, before the show guests are invited to enjoy and explore the Kit Kat Club with pre-show entertainment, drinks and dining all on offer.

The new cast joins the Kit Kat Club from Monday 25 September 2023.

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HONG KONG LESBIAN AND GAY FILM FESTIVAL: OPENING PARTY | Hong Kong, Woobar @ W Hotel

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To celebrate the 30th anniversary year of the longest-running LGBTQ+ film festival in Asia, the Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (HKLGFF) kicked off with two packed-house screenings and a dynamite party in Kowloon. All ticket holders to the opening screenings of Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (How I Felt When I Saw That Girl) (2019) or Les Crevettes Pailletées (The Shiny Shrimps) (2019) were invited to the party, with free drinks sponsored by Finlandia and Jack Daniel’s.

Before the screenings, executive director Raymond Leung presented this year’s Prism Award to Angus Leung, on behalf of him and his husband Scott Adams, for spending the past five years battling local government to recognise their marriage in Hong Kong.

At Woobar, DJs Janette Slack and Melody Lane delivered a stream of feel-good club classics with the occasional remix. Short, live performances injected some fresh energy, too. KiKi house of Marciano brought their mixed-gender, PVC-clad voguing trio, which went down an absolute storm. Drag Jam did some fun lip-syncing and also posed for some photo opportunities with fans.

Although primarily geared up for a young, nightclub-going crowd, there was a glorious mix of ages, nationalities and styles, embracing Hong Kong’s diversity. A huge amount has changed over the past thirty years: 1991 saw the legalisation of homosexuality, and Hong Kong’s annual Pride parade started in 2008. But there is still no legal recognition of any same-sex relationships, and limited protection against discrimination. The fight for visibility continues.

Book online for all upcoming events, including the closing party on 21 September 2019.

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