Carriageworks, one of Australia’s most significant contemporary multi-arts organisations, will present Incredible Floridas by leading contemporary instrumental group Ensemble Offspring. At the centre of the program is Australian composer Richard Meale’s landmark piece of chamber music, a homage to the surrealist poetry of Arthur Rimbaud. Presented from 24 – 25 June 2023, Incredible Floridas will be performed alongside a program of original works for instrumental chamber combinations including two world premieres by French composer Augustin Braud and Australian composer Josephine Macken, drawing inspiration from Meale’s brooding and complex musical language.

Although considered one of Australia’s most important composers, Richard Meale’s significant output is rarely performed live for contemporary audiences. For their latest performance, Ensemble Offspring will revive Meale’s iconic composition Incredible Floridas in an immersive staging by creative director Michelle St Anne. First performed by the British chamber music ensemble Fires of London in 1971, Incredible Floridas is a homage to one of the most revolutionary French poets of the 19th century, Arthur Rimbaud. The work was also celebrated in an early documentary short of the same name, by Sydney-based filmmaker Peter Weir (The Truman Show, Dead Poets Society).