New Zealand Opera
Theatre Critic
Michael Hooper reviews NZ Opera's latest production, The Elixir of Love Audio
Review: NZO's The Elixir of Love
Husband and wife tenor Pene Pati and soprano Amina Edris brought their real-life love to the stage for New Zealand Opera’s performance of Donizetti’s bel canto comedy The Elixir of Love. Peter Hoar… Audio
Upbeat for Friday 1 June
The world premiere of Corey Baker’s The Last Dance with the RNZB, NZO’s The Elixir of Love opens in Auckland, City Choir Dunedin members jet to London to perform a New Zealand oratorio and we round…
The opera that will have you laughing (and falling in love)
Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love opens next week in Auckland. The charming, funny opera is being performed by New Zealand Opera. Conductor and Musical Director Wyn Davies, and baritone Morgan Pearse… Audio
Upbeat for Thursday 24 May
The Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage gives her first speech about the importance of art in NZ, we get the lowdown on The Elixir of Love and RNZB’s new show Dancing with Mozart exploring the…
Coming up
Pene Pati and Amina Edris: opera stars living The Elixir of Love
Pene Pati is one third of the smash-hit pop opera family group Sol3 Mio. Pene, his brother Amitai and cousin Moses Mackay have taken a break from Sol3 to further their operatic studies. Now he's home… Audio
Review: NZ Opera’s Candide
NZ Opera and the Auckland Philharmonia presented a short season of Leonard Bernstein’s Volaire-inspired operetta Candide as part of the Auckland Arts Festival. Was it the best of all possible worlds… Audio
Upbeat for Monday 26 March
We mark the passing of El Sistema founder Jose Antonio Abreu and hear more reaction to the proposed restructure at Auckland University’s School of Music. Peter Hoar reviews NZ Opera’s Candide and we…
Review: NZ Opera’s Tosca
Mainlanders Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Simon O’Neill perform together in Christchurch for the first time in 20 years for NZ Opera’s Tosca. But did the leading men of opera in NZ shine? Tony Ryan was at… Audio
Opera’s such a drag…
Drag Queens combine with New Zealand Opera to celebrate the colourful and fascinating life of a legendary Aucklander Peter Taylor. Audio
New Zealand Opera’s General Director Stuart Maunder is moving on
New Zealand Opera's General Director Stuart Maunder is leaving the company after four years at the helm. He tells Eva Radich about his time in NZ and where he's off to next. Audio
The music of Katya Kabanova
New Zealand Opera’s final production of 2017, Katya Kabanova, continues its season in Wellington this week. Highly experienced musical director Wyn Davies chooses his favourite, and most poignant… Audio
Review: New Zealand Opera’s Katya Kabanova
New Zealand Opera’s final production of 2017, Janacek’s Katya Kabanova, opened in Auckland this weekend. It follows house wife Katya, who is expected to stay at home and obey her husband and cruel… Audio
Bringing the Kiwis home
New Zealand Opera announced its 2018 season this week, with a big emphasis on giving lead roles to New Zealand singers. NZO’s Executive Director Stuart Maunder talks about bringing back top Kiwi names… Audio
Relocating Katya to post-war America - it works!
Setting the classic Russian opera Kátya Kabanová in 1950s America is a risk - but one its star says works like crazy. Russian-American soprano Dina Kuznetsova is performing here for the first time… Audio
Review: New Zealand Opera’s Carmen
The billboards say “if you haven’t seen Carmen, it’s a tragedy”. New Zealand Opera’s Carmen opened last night in Wellington. Christine Argyle reviews this production of Bizet’s opera directed by Lindy… Audio
Carmen’s dynamic design
New Zealand Opera’s Carmen opening this week is the result of a director/designer partnership going back 25 years. Lindy Hume and Dan Potra made their names in the opera world with their “… Audio
A feminist view of Carmen
Lindy Hume directed her “breakthrough” production of Bizet’s opera Carmen twenty five years ago as an idealistic young feminist. It upset many in its exposure of the sexism inherent in the work… Audio
The Mikado - riotous or racist?
New Zealand Opera’s The Mikado has stirred up debate about cultural appropriation since it opened this week in Auckland. For reviewer Frances Moore,the production was a game of two halves - and not… Audio
Aussie stars in NZ Opera
2017 is a busy year for Australian Bass James Clayton. He’s playing the title role in New Zealand Opera’s The Mikado, and Escamillo in Carmen before jetting across the Tasman to work in Melbourne and… Audio