Club Screening – Le Mans 66
Thursday 26th March, 7.30pm To Book click here

Another highly recommended film – it’s exciting and it’s emotional. And Matt has a great pair of shades! Academy Award-winners Matt Damon and Christian Bale star in FORD v FERRARI, based on the remarkable true story of the visionary American car designer Carroll Shelby (Damon) and the fearless British-born driver Ken Miles (Bale), who together battled corporate interference, the laws of physics, and their own personal demons to build a revolutionary race car for Ford Motor Company and take on the dominating race cars of Enzo Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in 1966.

Runtime:    152 minutes

Poetry Reading Evening
Friday 27th March, 7.00pm Reserve here

We are very pleased to be hosting another poetry reading evening at the club, when we shall welcome five local poets to share their contrasting work with us. We look forward to readings given by Blake Everitt from his recently published collection ‘The Agony in the Garden’, Sandy Kealty, Carolyn King (twice shortlisted for the Manchester Poetry Prize and with three published collections), Nick Purkis whose collections include ‘In the Meantime’ and ‘Raising the Roofbeams”, and artist and poet Steve Ruston who had a sell out gig last year at Ventnor Fringe with ‘Ovid With Reverb Remixed’.

Each poet will have fifteen minutes reading time and there will be an open mic opportunity after a short interval half way through the evening.

Our last poetry reading evening was a most enjoyable and successful event and so we are delighted to welcome back contributors from that occasion as well as to introduce writers making their first Ventnor Arts Club appearance.

Entry is free.  Doors and bar open from 6.00pm.

Contact wendy@ventnorartsclub.com to reserve and for more information.

ROH Live – Swan Lake
Wednesday 1st April, 7:00pm Click for tickets here

Liam Scarlett’s glorious production of Swan Lake, new in 2018, returns for its first revival. While remaining faithful to the Marius Petipa/Lev Ivanov text, Scarlett’s additional choreography and John Macfarlane’s magnificent designs breathe new life into what is arguably the best-known and most-loved classical ballet.

The entire Company shines in this eternal tale of doomed love, a masterpiece filled with iconic moments. Tchaikovsky’s first score for ballet soars with its symphonic sweep and combines perfectly with exquisite choreography from the grand pas de deux of Prince Siegfried and Odile to the swans at the lakeside. An intoxicating, irresistible mix of spectacle and intimate passion. Choreography: Liam Scarlett after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov Music: Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky Additional choreography:Frederick Ashton Production: Liam Scarlett Designer: John Macfarlane Lighting designer: David Finn Conductor: Koen Kessels.

Live from The Met – Tosca
Saturday 11th April, 5.30pm Click for tickets here

Soprano Anna Netrebko, whom the New York Times hailed as “magnificent” when she made her role debut as Tosca in 2018, returns to cinemas on April 11 as Puccini’s explosive diva. Tenor Brian Jagde is the idealistic painter Cavaradossi, and baritone Michael Volle completes the opera’s fatal love triangle as the sinister Scarpia. Bertrand de Billy conducts Sir David McVicar’s stunning production. This live cinema transmission is part of the Met’s award-winning Live in HD series, bringing opera to more than 2,200 theaters in more than 70 countries worldwide.

Elizabeth & Jameson Album Tour 2020
Friday 17th April, 8.00pm Click for tickets here

Elizabeth & Jameson is an award-winning collaboration comprising two rising stars of the UK acoustic music scene.  Hannah Elizabeth and Griff Jameson have joined forces to create an indie-folk sound which encompasses both their individual musical backgrounds of traditional folk-roots and folk pop/rock.  This is simplistic, classic song writing at its best – a stripped back harmony-driven sound with acoustic guitar, violin, accordion and exquisite harmony vocals.

Recent festival highlights include Cambridge Folk Festival and the Great British Folk Festival.  As well as enjoying a busy gigging schedule, Elizabeth & Jameson are currently completing the recording of their debut studio album, due for release early in 2020.  The duo was also awarded the NMG Award for best Acoustic, Folk & Roots act for 2019, and to top off a fantastic and productive year they opened four shows for Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, as official support act for part of their Autumn/Winter tour.

Beethoven 250 – Celebratory piano recital 
Friday 24th April, 7.30pm  Click for tickets here

Born in 1770 into an age of political turmoil and social unrest, Beethoven wrote music marked by the spirit of revolution. Now 2020, and the above description certainly bears a striking resemblance to our current world situation. Beethoven was essentially revolutionary as a composer, blazing ahead with new paths of musical expression and innovation of musical form.

This piano recital, the first of several by Simon Davis, looks at Beethoven’s late early to middle period of the 32 piano sonatas. The two piano sonatas opening the recital show the influence of Haydn and Mozart, with Mozarts dramatic and ground breaking C Minor fantasia following as a nod to the earlier great master.

After the interval we visit Beethoven’s Sonata no 13 in Eb where his unique invention, wit, drama and simplicity all beautifully balanced, converge to blissful satisfaction. The recital concludes with the Sonata in C# Minor, the evergreen Moonlight with its opening brooding intensity giving way to a light minuet before plunging deeply into a blaze of passion in the Sturm Und Drang of the last movement.

Beethoven – Sonata No 19 in G Minor
Beethoven – Sonata No 20 in G Major
Mozart – Fantasia in C Minor 

Interval

Beethoven – Sonata No 13 in E Flat
Beethoven – Sonata No 14 in C# Minor (Moonlight)