Malcolm Williams

The New Brighton Seaside Festival is fast approaching and has all the right ingredients for an amazing weekend.

Saucy dance rhythms and film-noire scores meet black comedy cabaret in Lyric Opera's revival of Australian composer Malcolm Williamson's work, Our Man in Havana, last performed over 50 years ago and before his spectacular fall from grace. Director Suzanne Chaundy said the performance would provide Fringe Festival audiences with an amazing, immersive musical experience set in a seedy Cuban nightclub, complete with bar and showgirls.

If you want to know why the first fifty years of the 20th century saw a remarkable resurgence of creative energy, then just look at the music Leigh Harrold programmed for the Kegelstatt Ensemble.

The Australian Ballet celebrates its origins with a season of pivotal ballets from its formative years. Icons will showcase a triple bill of works commissioned over three decades:The Display, Gemini and Beyond Twelve.

On Monday 18 June, the QPAC Choir will present its first major public performance for 2012 - Pure Imagination: An evening of beautiful choral music in the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) Concert Hall.