4
“
The people of
Melbourne were clearly
ready to take ownership
of their international
arts Festival.
”
Race Matthews, then the Arts Minister in John Cain’s Labor
Government and a great advocate for all aspects of the city’s cultural life—
from fashion design to the classical arts—took the proposal to the Premier
and Cabinet and was given the go-ahead. He commissioned a feasibility
study, carried out by the head of the arts ministry Paul Clarkson. The study
concluded that Bini’s proposal had legs. In 1982, Bini led a small delegation
from the Melbourne Italian Festival to visit Menotti and begin negotiating
with Germano Marri, President of Umbria; the Italian administrative region
that covers Spoleto. A planning committee was formed in 1984 with Marc
Besen as President and Luciano Bini as his Deputy.
Less than 10 years after Hamer’s original report, Menotti gave the
State Government a rallying point. It was felt his name would give the project
international prestige and joining the Spoleto-Charleston axis would give
Melbourne instant recognition.
The following January, Menotti arrived in Melbourne to a warm
welcome. He was intrigued by the Italian presence so far from home and,
like Besen and Bini, could see the potential for anther arm of the Spoleto
Festival. A board was created with Besen as President, Bini as his Deputy and
nine members appointed directly by the Government to make sure its vision
remained central. Colin Sturm—an energetic and diplomatic problem-solver,
ideal for getting a complicated new project with many stakeholders off the
ground—was appointed General Manager. After Marc Besen’s retirement
from the Board a year later, Bruce Grant took over as President. He would
remain at the helm for Menotti’s inaug ural three years.
Spoleto Melbourne: Festival of Three Worlds was conceived as a
high-end performing arts extravaganza that would bring the very best artists
from overseas to Melbourne: wonderful for local residents and an incentive
for tourists from around Australia to flock to the southern capital.
From the beginning there was a close association with Melbourne
Writers’ Festival, also established in 1986, Melbourne Fringe Festival and
Piccolo Spoleto, an initiative of Multicultural Arts Victoria.
There were many memorable international performances in those
early years: the Royal National Ballet of Spain, Ken Russell’s controversial
Madam Butterfly, an exhibition of Etruscan art from Italy, the Cloudgate
Contemporary Dance Company from Taiwan, the Vermeer Quartet from
America, and The English Shakespeare Company’s War of the Roses cycle,
were set in a busy program that drew in anyone who was anyone on the
Australian arts scene.
It was a landmark development in Melbourne’s social life, and the
sense of occasion for arts lovers was immense. The opening of the Victorian
Arts Centre also changed the geography of the city. Central Melbourne now
sprawled over Princes Bridge to take in the Southbank precinct: restaurants
burgeoned, pedestrian traffic increased.
In 1990, the second year of John Truscott’s term as Artistic Director,
Spoleto was dropped and the name, Melbourne International Festival, was
adopted. The people of Melbourne were clearly ready to take ownership of
their international arts Festival.
MELBOURNE FESTIVAL: 30 YEARS