Melbourne Winter Masterpieces Warm Up Winter with Huge Exhibitions & Shows

Napoleon: Revolution to Empire,

Now that the heat of summer’s action-packed season of sporting events and back-to-back festivals has come to an end, Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria in Australia, is enjoying blockbuster exhibitions from the 2012 Melbourne Winter Masterpieces program. This is an inspiring line up of cultural festivals and stage spectaculars including some epic announcements for 2013.

Napoleon: Revolution

Napoleon: Revolution to Empire, 2 June - 7 October, 2012, NGV International, is the first in the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces program in 2012. The panoramic exhibition examines French art, culture and life from the 1770s to the 1820s and is organised in partnership with the Fondation Napoléon, Paris, which is lending many of its works and treasures.

Its story runs from the first French voyages of discovery to Australia during the reign of Louis XV to the end of Napoleon's transforming leadership as first Emperor of France.

The exhibition will provide a fascinating insight into French art and culture from one of the richest and most tumultuous periods in French history: the era of Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine, two of the world's most dynamic and influential historical figures.

The exhibition brings together more than 200 works from late 18th and early 19th Century France, including paintings, watercolours and drawings, engravings, sculpture, furniture, textiles, porcelain, glass, gold and silver, fashion, jewellery and armour.

Games Masters

Games Masters

Games Masters, 28 June - 28 October, 2012, The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), is testimony to Melbourne's reputation as the major creative hub for Australia's videogames industry. The event is a highly interactive videogame exhibition presented as part of the 2012 Melbourne Winter Masterpieces.

Curated by ACMI, Game Masters will showcase the work of leading local and international videogame designers with more than 125 playable games from the arcade era through to the latest console and mobile game technology.

More than 40 game designers who have made a significant and ongoing impact in the field will be profiled throughout the exhibition, including well-known international, independent and Australian game designers such as Melbourne-based Firemint, whose mobile game Spy Mouse, was the most downloaded game on the Apple App Store in September 2011. The designers' work will be explored through a combination of rare concept artwork, newly commissioned interviews and playable games.

The Game Masters exhibition will be accompanied by a series of public, film and education programs, expected to appeal to people of all ages and abilities, from the budding game developer to smart phone users to children and the 'original' gamers.

The Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia

From a relatively recent art form to an exhibition of ancient artefacts. The Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia is a major new touring exhibition showcasing stunning artefacts from one of the world's great ancient civilizations. It will open at Melbourne Museum on 4 May, 2012.

Presented in collaboration with The British Museum, The Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia, explores an era of extraordinary invention and innovation. Mesopotamia - the Land between the Rivers - occupied what is now modern Iraq, north east Syria, and south east Turkey. The exhibition will focus on three of the great centres of ancient civilisation, Sumer, Assyria and Babylon, bringing their rich history to life through objects and multimedia.

Themes in the exhibition include palaces and royal power, religious beliefs and rituals, burial practices and royal tombs, and the myths and legends that surround ancient Mesopotamia. Following on from the blockbuster Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibition, The Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia will be another Australian first for Melbourne Museum.

Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention

Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention

Legends on a different scale, world-famous inventor and animated television personality Wallace and his faithful dog Gromit are setting up shop and house at Scienceworks as part of an interactive exhibition called Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention. The exhibition will open from 18 May until November 2012. Young and old alike will delight in exploring 62 West Wallaby Street, a life-size version of Wallace and Gromit's home and discovering how simple ideas transform into life-changing inventions.

The Oscar-winning duo will guide visitors through a world of cracking interactive contraptions including the Telly-scope II, the Blend-o-matic, the Thinking Cap and the Karaoke Disco Shower, as well as Wallace's half-baked ideas - from the Chocolate Teapot to the Ice Hot Water Bottle. There will be hands-on activities, games and more.

Looking towards 2013 and things are getting even more epic.

War Horse

The National Theatre of Great Britain and Global Creatures, in association with the Arts Centre, have announced that Melbourne has secured the rights to stage the multiple Tony and Olivier Award-winning War Horse, for a season commencing in late 2012. Admired by critics and audiences alike, War Horse will be staged at the Arts Centre's State Theatre, opening 31 December 2012 for a 10-week season.

KING KONG - Live on Stage

In what will be a massive world-first for Melbourne, the creative line-up has been announced and pre-production is underway for another Global Creatures stage show promising 'big' things. KING KONG - Live on Stage will be premiering first at the Regents Theatre in Melbourne in early 2013 before heading to Broadway.

KING KONG - Live on Stage

One of the greatest love stories of all time, KING KONG - Live on Stage will feature a cast of more than 40 onstage actors, singers, dancers and puppeteers including a seven-metre animatronics creature currently in development at a warehouse in Melbourne. The adventure begins in 1933 in New York City at the height of the Depression. The music in KING KONG will feature several new songs by Marius de Vries who is also writing the incidental musical score, as well as arranging the classic period songs that will be featured in the production.

Global Creatures is an international entertainment group that develops new and exciting theatrical productions to take to audiences all around the world. Their animatronics arm, The Creature Technology Company, invents and deploys the latest in animatronic design from their warehouse in Melbourne. Global Creatures is the company behind the hugely successful Walking with Dinosaurs - the Arena Spectacular, which established a new entertainment genre that has been seen by millions of people and broken box office records in Australia, Europe, Asia and North America since its inception in 2007.

Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring Cycle)

Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring Cycle)

And if that wasn't enough, in 2013 Opera Australia will be presenting Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring Cycle) at the Arts Centre, Melbourne. Marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Richard Wagner, during November and December 2013, Opera Australia will perform three complete cycles of the four mighty operas which make up his epic vision: Das Rheingold (Rhine gold); Die Walküre (The Valkyrie); Siegfried Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods).

Director Neil Armfield AO and conductor Richard Mills AM lead this production, supported by film and theatre designer Robert Cousins. The international cast includes English soprano Susan Bullock as Brünnhilde, Finnish bass-baritone Juha Uusitalo as Wotan, American Heldentenor Gary Lehman as Siegfried and Australian Helden baritone John Wegner as Alberich. Further casting details will be announced over the coming months.

To celebrate The Melbourne Ring Cycle, Opera Australia has devised a four week festival including comedy, cabaret, mini versions of The Ring of the Nibelung, film, food and wine events, lectures, pre-performance talks, plus a host of other surprising performances in unexplored corners of the City of Melbourne. Tickets for The Melbourne Ring Cycle will go on sale later in 2012.