(Credit: Katya Brook) New Zealand Opera has announced its 2026 season. The season opens with “Opera in the Park,” presented as part of the Auckland Council’s Music in Parks series. Performance Dates: Jan. 24 & 31, 2026 Next, the company presents “Bluebeard’s Castle,” with a libretto by Béla Balázs and an English translation by Daisy Evans. Brad Cohen conducts a {…}
New Zealand Opera has unveiled its 2025 season. First up is “Summer of Opera,” two concerts in the park starring Joanna Foote, Sarah Mileham, Taylor Wallbank, Joel Amosa, and Alfred Fonoti-Fuimaono. David Kelly accompanies at the piano. Performance Date: Jan. 25 & Feb. 1, 2025 (Auckland) There will be special performances of “L’Elisir d’Amore” at the Hamilton Arts Festival starring {…}
New Zealand Opera has announced that it will provide braille surtitles for live performances for its blind and low-vision opera fans. The company will be the first in the world and are being designed to enrich the experience of a live performance without the interference of audio descriptions fo the blind and low vision community. According to The Guardian, New {…}
New Zealand Opera has announced its inaugural New Opera Forum. The New Opera Forum’s mission is to “create a space for story-telling creatives in Aotearoa to gather together and consider the essential steps required before starting new opera projects.” Music-based and text-based storytellers are invited to participate in the week-long wānanga, where we will collectively explore the mechanics of opera. {…}
New Zealand Opera has unveiled its 2024 season. First up is “Mansfield Park.” The opera by Jonathan Dove and Alasdair Middleton will star Ashlyn Tymms, Robert Tucker, Kristin Darragh, Tayla Alexander, Michaela Cadwgan, and Joel Amosa, among others. Rebecca Meltzer directs and David Kelly and Soomin Kim provide the musical accompaniment. Performance Dates: April 17 & 18 (Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington); {…}
Photo Credit: Grant Triplow / NZ Opera “Ihitai ‘Avei’a – Star Navigator” is the first opera composed by New Zealand musician and composer Tim Finn, member of the band Split Enz, with supplementary compositional aid from Tom McLeod. The work emerged out of a co-commission partnership between the New Zealand Opera and West Australian Opera. The opera featured the Tahitian language in {…}
New Zealand Opera will premiere its original comic opera, “The Unruly Tourists,” at the 2023 Auckland Arts Festival. Performances will run from March 22-26, 2022. The opera revisits a 2019 incident involving tourists from the UK who misbehave, leaving garbage and ill will. The episode sparked outrage and a national obsession with the tourists, keeping them on the front page {…}
(Credits: Dragana Ranković/Semperoper Dresden official website/ NZ Opera official website/ Bayerische Staatsoper official website/Bayerische Staatsoper official website) The New Zealand Opera has announced its 2022 slate, featuring numerous international artists and productions. “Summer of Opera” will take place in Wellington, Auckland, and at Hamilton Garden Arts Festival. The event will spotlight music by Bizet, Bernstein, and other famous composers. Performance {…}
New Zealand Opera has announced the appointment of Dr. Te Oti Rakena (Ngāpuhi, Ngati Ruanui and Kāi Tahu) following the recent appointment of Carol Hirschfeld (Ngāti Porou) and Joanna Heslop (Ngāti Ruanui). Dr. Rakena joins NZ Opera’s board at a time when the artform is enjoying a renewed sense of innovation in storytelling, both locally and globally. The organization is {…}
New Zealand Opera has announced that Carol Hirschfeld and Joanna Heslop have been joined its board of directors. With over 30 years in the field of news and current affairs, Hirschfeld has held positions with TVNZ, TV3, Maori TV, and RNZ, as reporter, director, presenter, producer, and executive. She will serve NZO as Head of Video/Audio. “I admire the work {…}
The New Zealand Opera canceled its run of Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” performances in Wellington due to COVID-19. In a statement, the company said that the “Government has now announced that there will be an Alert Level change to Level 2 in Wellington from June 22 through at least June 27. It is therefore with huge disappointment that we {…}