“Vivid LIVE is a wonderful international event. Our Reflections shows in 2011 were truly memorable experiences, and with the excitement surrounding those early album performances in mind, we are more than delighted to be announcing our return in May 2019 to present the world premiere of Disintegration - 30th Anniversary.” ~ Robert Smith, The Cure
The Sydney Opera House has revealed that legendary British alt-rock group The Cure will perform their landmark album Disintegration on its 30th anniversary in a world premiere and Australian exclusive at Vivid LIVE as a part of Vivid Sydney, the largest festival of light, music and ideas in Australia.
The Cure’s Robert Smith will take to the Concert Hall stage with full band for four nights only in May, performing the exquisitely melancholic and undeniably influential album Disintegration in full alongside moving tracks from their extensive back catalogue.
Sydney Opera House Head of Contemporary Music and Vivid LIVE Curator, Ben Marshall, says: “Disintegration sealed The Cure’s undisputed position of global dominance while defiantly remaining outsiders who created an artistic body of work of lasting significance. An immaculately glacial, majestic album marrying raw, intense emotion with some of the biggest hits of their career, Disintegration links the spectral sorrow of Unknown Pleasures with the menacing catharsis of Nevermind.”
Vivid LIVE at Sydney Opera House exists to present thrilling, peerless music in a building celebrating the liberating power of art so Robert Smith and The Cure choosing us for this global premiere of the album’s 30th anniversary is both a perfect fit and an immense honour.
The Cure’s all-conquering Reflections concerts here in 2011 were astonishing events, topped only by this unmissable moment with The Cure performing their seismic masterpiece in full.
Vivid Sydney Creative Director, Ignatius Jones, says: “Vivid Sydney is renowned worldwide for celebrating creativity and championing innovation. Once again Vivid Music is set to showcase some of the best local, international, emerging and established artists across 23 days and Vivid LIVE is a key event in our festival program. We look forward to welcoming music lovers young and old from around the world to our Harbour City’s iconic Sydney Opera House to see The Cure perform.”
It was Disintegration – The Cure’s eighth studio album, released a decade into an already illustrious career – that cemented them as a cultural phenomenon. In 1989, at the pinnacle of numerous life changes, singer-songwriter and founding member, Robert Smith’s overwhelming urgency to compose a masterpiece drove him to produce an uncompromising piece of art that would sell over 3 million copies worldwide and become the group’s most critically-praised and beloved record more than 30 years later.
Devastatingly honest, Disintegration’s unrelenting emotional grandeur was all-consuming yet oddly comforting. It established The Cure as pioneers of a new era in popular music, transforming the Grammy-nominated group into counter-intuitive dark pop thrillers that influenced countless musicians including Sydney Opera House alumni Interpol, Robert Plant and Lorde.
Now returning to Vivid LIVE eight years after their Sydney Opera House debut, The Cure’s 2019 performances are guaranteed to be both hypnotic and transcendent.
The ballot for The Cure’s exclusive Vivid LIVE performances follows sold-out ballots for world-class shows including Solange (2018), Morrissey (2015), Kraftwerk's The Catalogue in 3D (2013), and Anohni’s immersive and sense-shifting Hopelessness (2016).
Entering its second decade in 2019, Vivid LIVE continues its commitment to present the most ambitious and innovative local and international talent on the nation’s most famous stages. The full program for Vivid LIVE at the Sydney Opera House will be announced soon.
WHAT: The Cure – Disintegration 30th Anniversary
WHEN: 8 pm
Friday 24 May, Saturday 25 May, Monday 27 May and Tuesday 28 May
WHERE: Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
TICKETS: Premium tickets $249*
A Reserve $199*
B Reserve $149*
C Reserve $99*
*plus booking fee