Emma Donovan is one of Australia’s most respected entertainers. She sings. She composes. She engages the audience by tellings stories of her family. In Take Me to the River she gracefully commands the stage and the band of two guitars, drummer, two choristers and a keyboard player. In a flowing black gown with white feathers on the sleeves, Donovan holds our attention for over two hours in this once only performance, part of the Festival of Sydney 2026.
As an excited audience waited for the performance to begin, the large screen high above the stage flickered on. A white station wagon appeared. Then two young girls carried camping gear to the wagon and tossed it in the back. Then Emma entered, carrying more to put in the wagon. More and more camping gear is tossed and arranged in the back until finally Emma and her two daughters are ready for their Take me to the River adventure. They drove away and were next seen on the film camping by a river.
The projections continued throughout the concert and enhanced the stage action, especially scenes where the sandy shore met the gentle foamy surf. The footage was an addition to the concert, not a distraction.
Emma sang some of her classics and many American songs, mixing jazz, soul and reggae. Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Here Comes the Sun, Blowin’ in the Wind are American civil rights and anti-war protest songs she and the band brought to life. The audience loved it.
But that’s not all. Suddenly Casey Donovan appeared and the two cousins sang a duet. Casey became the youngest ever winner of Australian Idol in 2004. She is a musician, actor and writer. She won an ARIA No 1 Award for Listen with Your Heart and Deadly Awards for Best Album, Best Single and Most Promising New Talent.
Casey waved ‘goodbye’ to us and a bit later there was another surprise – Ursula Yovich breezed onto the stage to sing with Emma. Yovich is another beloved Aussie entertainer, best known for co-writing and appearing in the rock musical, BARBARA AND THE CAMP DOGS.
Yovich’s father was a Bosnian Serb immigrant and her mother an Aboriginal Burarra woman from north-west Arnhem Land. Both Ursula’s parents spoke English as a second language as she was growing up making her multi-lingual.
There was one major disappointment in the performance. The City Recital Hall acoustics are excellent with Soundscape-enabled 360° sound diffused to all three seating tiers. But the microphone system distorted the women’s wonderful deep natural voices into hyper-electronic explosions. This particularly happened in the higher voice range. We know these three women have deep, full vibrato. We wanted to hear their natural voices. Additionally, each instrument in the band was wired and amplified through the sound system. That’s OK for a hash-up or rock band, but not as an accompaniment to Donovan.
The audience gave Emma a standing ovation, demanded an encore, and then gave her another standing ovation. She deserved it.
