Latest news with #SamanthaClarke
Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Times
Orpheus and Eurydice review — Gluck gets the circus treatment
Christoph Willibald Gluck was the 18th-century German composer who wanted to strip opera of show-off vocal virtuosity and convoluted plot twists and instead present unvarnished themes — love, loss, death — in unvarnished music. With Orpheus and Eurydice he achieved that goal with a concise, noble and austere masterpiece of an opera. So it's jolting, to put it mildly, to have that pared-down sensibility harnessed in Yaron Lifschitz's Playhouse staging (brought to the Edinburgh International Festival by Opera Queensland) to something so different in mood and aesthetic that at first you can hardly believe your eyes. While the two protagonists — the indestructible countertenor Iestyn Davies and the peachy-toned soprano Samantha Clarke — deliver Gluck's music in fine style, aided by the excellent Scottish Opera Chorus and Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Laurence Cummings's direction, 11 acrobats from the Brisbane-based Circa company tumble and twist around them, forming a kind of gymnastic commentary on the story. The acrobats from Circa in action JESS SHURTE At least, that's what they sometimes do. It's easy to spot the visual metaphors when, for instance, during the overture a woman acrobat does a long, twisty plunge down a suspended rope, clearly evoking Eurydice's descent to the underworld. Or to feel the physical power of the scene where Orpheus, following her to Hell, is taunted by figures dashing around him like demented animals. Or indeed to be impressed by the counterintuitive finale, where Gluck's happy ending is undercut by a literally bloody coup de théâtre. Elsewhere, however, it's more difficult to relate the acrobats' frenetic activities — cartwheeling, leapfrogging, contorting and forming ever more improbable human pyramids — either to the story or the music's generally sombre mood. Nor could I fathom why Eurydice was briefly transformed into a vampy cabaret singer, or why some of the action took place in a garden greenhouse. Did that matter, though? The audience in the packed Playhouse continually gasped at the heart-in-mouth daring of the acrobats and gave the show a standing ovation. So at least Gluck got his biggest cheer for centuries. ★★★☆☆ 80min Edinburgh Playhouse, to Aug 16,
NZ Herald
4 days ago
- General
- NZ Herald
Bluebridge rescues toy monkey left in Wellington, reunites him with family
An Australian family who left a cherished member of their group in Wellington before sailing across the Cook Strait are beaming after Bluebridge mounted a rescue mission to return him. Bluebridge's senior commercial manager Samantha Clarke told the Herald the company's efforts to reunite toy monkey George with his 4-year-old
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Yahoo
Deputies relying on statement from sole survivor for answers after Walmart shooter dies
The suspected gunman in a shooting at a Newton County Walmart died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound over the weekend. Now, Newton County Sheriff's deputies will have to speak with the sole survivor and review surveillance video for answers in the case. 'He released like 5,6,7,8,9,10 shots and she fell on impact and in that moment, I knew that my daughter was gone,' said Samantha Clarke, the mother of one of the victims, 19-year-old Akeela Clarke. Clarke gave Channel 2's Audrey Washington exclusive in-home surveillance video of the moment she said suspected shooter Dwayne Eduh broke into her Emerson Trail home and shot her daughter. Akeela Clarke died in front of her mother. 'She was full of life. She did not deserve this,' Samantha Clarke said. TRENDING STORIES: Former Georgia Police Academy instructor charged with child molestation 1 dead, 4 in critical condition after crash at busy Atlanta intersection Attorneys reveal settlement amount between Marjorie Taylor Greene's ex-husband, 3 Muslim women Samantha Clarke said her daughter worked alongside Eduh but was not in a relationship with the man. She said she didn't know what led to the deadly shooting. Newton County Sheriff's Deputies said Ehduh first shot two of his other co-workers at the Walmart store on Salem Road early Friday morning. One co-worker, Khalaf Barksdale, died. Ryan Bradley survived. Deputies said Eduh took off after the shooting. They said he shot himself in the head when law enforcement eventually caught up with him in South Carolina. On Sunday, Eduh scummed to his self-inflicted gunshot wound. Deputies are now relying on statements from Bradley and surveillance video for clues in the case. Still, Samantha Clarke said nothing will bring back her daughter. 'You didn't have to kill her,' Clarke said of Eduh. 'We're like triage for moms who have been through that,' Tiffany Smith of the Angel Moms Collective told Washington. Smith is the mother of Cameron Jackson, one of two boys shot and killed on the 17th Street bridge in midtown Atlanta in 2022. She started the Angel Moms Collective to help mothers whose children had died from gun violence. Smith said she is now offering any support Samantha Clarke may need. 'There is a compassionate group of mothers who understand and who get it, and you do not have to walk this journey alone,' said Smith. Samantha Clarke said she is now working on funeral plans for Akeela. She has set up a GoFundMe account if you would like to help out.
