Melbourne International Arts Festival, formerly Spoleto Festival Melbourne – Festival of the Three Worlds, then Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, becoming commonly known as Melbourne Festival, was a major international arts festival held in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia, from 1986 to 2019. In 2020, a new festival named

RISING Rising or RISING may refer to: Film and TV * "Rising", 2001 television series episode, see list of ''Dark Angel'' episodes * "Rising" (''Stargate Atlantis''), television series episode * ''Rising'' (web series), an American daily news and opini ...

was announced to replace both the MIAF and the White Night Festival. RISING was conceived as a winter festival combining elements of visual art, music, performance, and large-scale public installations. The inaugural RISING festival was initially scheduled for May 2020 but was postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Subsequent attempts to launch in 2021 were also disrupted by the pandemic. The festival eventually debuted in June 2022.

History

Names

Spoleto Melbourne – Festival of the Three Worlds, under the direction of composer

Gian Carlo Menotti Gian Carlo Menotti (, ; July 7, 1911 – February 1, 2007) was an Italian-American composer, libretto, librettist, director, and playwright who is primarily known for his output of 25 operas. Although he often referred to himself as an American ...

, was established in 1986 by the

Cain Cain is a biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He is the elder brother of Abel, and the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, the first couple within the Bible. He was a farmer who gave an offering of his crops to God. How ...

government, as a sister festival of the

Festival dei Due Mondi The ''Festival dei Due Mondi'' (Festival of the Two Worlds) is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958. It features a vast array of conc ...

Spoleto Spoleto (, also , , ; ) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is south of Trevi, north of Terni, southeast of Perugia; southeast of Florence; and north of Rome. H ...

and the

Spoleto Festival USA Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of America's major performing arts festivals. It was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due ...

held in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

. The festival changed its name to the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts in 1990. It then became known as Melbourne International Arts Festival from 2003, becoming commonly known as Melbourne Festival. The Festival was later renamed Melbourne International Arts Festival, which it retained until 2019.

Directors

It has had a number of high-profile artistic directors, including Clifford Hocking,

Leo Schofield Leo George Schofield (born 6 May 1935) had a notable career as an advertising professional, journalist, creative arts festival director, and trustee of arts and cultural organisations. After many years in other states of Australia he now live ...

Robyn Archer Robyn Archer, AO, CdOAL (born 1948) is an Australian singer, writer, stage director, artistic director, and public advocate of the arts, in Australia and internationally. Biography Archer was born Robyn Smith in Prospect, South Australi ...

Richard Wherrett Richard Bruce Wherrett AM (10 December 19407 December 2001) was an Australian stage director, whose career spanned 40 years. He is known for being the founding director of the Sydney Theatre Company in 1979. Early life Richard Wherrett was bor ...

, Jonathan Mills and Kristy Edmunds. The artistic director for the 2009–2012 festivals was

Brett Sheehy Brett Joseph Sheehy an Australian artistic director, producer and curator. He has been director of international arts festivals in Australia's state capital cities, Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival, and Melbourne Festival. Early life and edu ...

. Previously, Sheehy was artistic director of the Adelaide Festival of Arts (2006–2008), and Festival Director and Chief executive of Sydney Festival (2002–2005). In January 2012, Melbourne Festival announced the appointment of Josephine Ridge as creative director for the 2013 festival and beyond. Prior to her appointment Josephine was general manager, then executive director and co-CEO with four artistic directors at

Sydney Festival Sydney Festival is a major arts festival in Australia's largest city, Sydney, that runs for three weeks every January since it was established in 1977. The festival program features over 100 events from local and international artists and inclu ...

. Josephine appointed several high-profile arts workers to her creative team, including Louise Neri (Creative Associate – Visual Arts) and

Richard Tognetti Richard Leo Tognetti AO (born 4 August 1965) is a leading Australian musician recognised internationally as a violin soloist, ensemble player, leader, composer and arranger, conductor and artistic director. He is currently artistic direct ...

(Creative Associate – Music).

Selected productions

The 2006 Melbourne Festival hosted a production of ''

Ngapartji Ngapartji ''Ngapartji Ngapartji'' was an Australian Indigenous language maintenance/revitalisation and community development project that ran between 2005 and 2010. One of its spin-off projects, a stage production of the same name co-created by Scott Ran ...

'', with much of the dialogue in the

Pitjantjatjara language Pitjantjatjara ( ; or ) is a dialect of the Western Desert language traditionally spoken by the Pitjantjatjara people of Central Australia. It is mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible with other varieties of the Western Desert languag ...

. It premiered the universally critically acclaimed productions from

The Black Arm Band Black Arm Band is an Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander music theatre organisation. History The organisation was founded in late 2005 by Steven Richardson and has produced seven large-scale productions since its debut performance a ...

, ''murundak'' in 2006, ''Hidden Republic'' in 2008 and ''

dirtsong Black Arm Band is an Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander music theatre organisation. History The organisation was founded in late 2005 by Steven Richardson and has produced seven large-scale productions since its debut performance a ...

'' in 2009. In 2015 the

Australian Art Orchestra The Australian Art Orchestra (AAO) is one of Australia's leading contemporary ensembles. Founded by pianist Paul Grabowsky in 1994, it has been led by composer/trumpeter/sound artist Peter Knight since 2013 and led by pianist/composer/producer ...

debuted ''Water Pushes Sand'' at the Festival. The piece merged Australian and

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

ese folk musical styles and featured Zheng Sheng Li, a Sichuan Cheng Du "face changing" dancer. In 2019 it was announced that in 2020, the festival would be transformed into

Rising Rising or RISING may refer to: Film and TV * "Rising", 2001 television series episode, see list of ''Dark Angel'' episodes * "Rising" (''Stargate Atlantis''), television series episode * ''Rising'' (web series), an American daily news and opini ...

, to be held in the winter over several weeks. The new festival would combine the Melbourne International Arts Festival with White Night Melbourne Reimagined.

Description

Melbourne Festival was one of the most significant festivals in Australia, together with the

and the

Adelaide Festival of Arts The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

. It hosted performances by established artistic companies as well as independent acts. It was an important event on the Australian cultural calendar. Each festival invited a range of dance, theatre, music, visual arts, multimedia and outdoor events from renowned and upcoming Australian and international companies and artists to Melbourne. It offered a wide variety of free family-friendly events. It took place over 17 days each October.

Artistic directors

References

{{Melbourne events 1986 establishments in Australia Classical music festivals in Australia Music festivals established in 1986 Performing arts in Melbourne Music festivals in Melbourne