OBSERVER: Cicero’s Column
• Tickets have sold out for the VicRoads Heritage plate auction on Tuesday February 18. Some 500 tickets were claimed. The auction can be viewed online at heritageonly.com.au
• Melbourne Opera presents Richard Wagner’s comedy Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at 3pm on February 16 and 22, and 5pm on February 18 and 20. The performances will be at the Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton.
• The 48th Historic Winton to be held on May 24-25 at Winton Motor Raceway, will run without motorcycles for the first time.
• Labyrinth-Forest Collec-tive, an immersive dance-opera-piano concerto exploring the ancient Greek myth of the Minotaur, is at the Abbotsford Convent Magdalen Laundry until February 8.
• Old Scotch Collegians Football Club is mouring the passing of former club coach Dale Tapping who died from myeloma on February 4, two years after being diagnosed with the blood cancer.
• Elizabeth Anderson has been appointed as Assistant Artistic Director of the Australian Chamber Choir.
• MSO Cybec Assistant Conductor Leonard Weiss has been selected for prestigious Boston Symphony Orchestra Tanglewood Fellowship.
• Sullivan+Strumpf announces its first Melbourne group exhibition, bringing together key voices working in contemporary abstraction. Open 10am – 5pm Tuesday to Saturday. Entry is free. Until March 8. 107 – 109 Rupert St, Collingwood.
• Sundays With Wit is presenting an Intro To Intimacy with Rebecca Fortuna. Learn the art of staging intimacy with creativity, clarity, and consent. 10.30am-12 Noon, Sunday, February 23. At Bluestone Church Arts Space, 8A Hyde St, Footscray.
• Yacht Rock Revival, smooth sounds of ’70s and 80’s light rock, funk and pop classics, is being geld 6pm on Saturday, February 22, at Packer Park, Carnegie. Free.
• Jude Perl and her jazz trio will perform from the American Songbook, as well as original tunes, from 7.30pm on Friday, February 14 (Valentines Day) at Caulfield Park Lake, Corner Hawthorn and Balaclava Rds, Caulfield North. Free.
• Mark Robinson, Herald Sun’s Chief Football Writer, has retired after more than four decades in journalism.
• Laura Tingle has also written her final column for The Australian Financial Review. She joined the paper in 1981. She continues at the ABC website.
• Professor Anna Peeters will become the new Chief Executive Officer of the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth).
• Tina The Musical will close at the Princess Theatre on March 2.
• The 2025 UniSport National 3×3 Basketball Championships will be hosted at Monash University in May. 3×3 basketball’s popularity is exploding. The brightest university athletes will be attracted to Victoria.
• The Big Issue is celebrating magazine vendors all around the country with a special edition of the fortnightly magazine on sale.
• Bill’s Secrets, a book by Belinda Probert, was launched last week by Don Watson at Readings Carlton.
• Joanna Murray-Smith’s Berlin returns to Melbourne this month following its sell-out run in 2023. Directed by Erica Chestnut and starring Georgia Latchford and Lachlan Hamill, the romantic thriller will play a strictly limited season from February 27.
• Caroline Lee, who played Jean Pascoe in ABC-TV’s The Newsreader is Deputy Chair at La Mama Theatre.
• PJ Lane, famous son of the TV star, is looking to bring his Don Lane Story floor show to Melbourne. Perhaps The Palms At Crown?
• Follies enjoyed a short six- night season at the Palais, St Kilda. Theatre royalty united for an unmissable production in Australian musical theatre history: Marina Prior, Antoinette Halloran, Adam Murphy, Alexander Lewis, Colette Mann, Geraldene Morrow, Evelyn Krape, Merlyn Quaife, Rhonda Burchmore and Geraldine Turner.
• The Australian Children’s Music Foundation has welcome Beth Appleton to its Board of Directors.
• Dementia Australia’s largestannual fundraising event, Memory Walk & Jog, will set off on Sunday May 18 at Princes Park, Carlton North, to raise money and awareness.