After a triumphant sold-out Auckland
Town Hall concert in June,
Bach Musica NZ
returns once more to the iconic Great Hall on 12 September
for their third performance of the year. The combined choir
and orchestra will transport audiences with another
astounding programme. The first half offers two of the most
popular guitar concertos of all time,
Vivaldi’s captivating
Rodrigo’s
Concierto
de Aranjuez, his most well-known work and that which
established his reputation as one of the world’s most
significant 20th century Spanish composers. In the second
half you will experience Bach Musica NZ’s largest-ever
forces on stage for Rachmaninov’s beautiful choral
Carmen, and Anna in
Robin Smith Photography/Alexander Turnbull Library/Ref PAColl-3493-03
Emily Mair as Adina, with Graeme Gorton, in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore in 1967. Three years in the BBC Chorus followed, working with eminent conductors. She met and, in 1951, married New Zealand cellist Wilfrid Simenauer. They gave many concerts together.
The Radio Times reveals that, before 1960, Emily broadcast on the BBC (at least) seven times as a collaborative pianist (mostly with Wilf) and twice as a singer. This changed. Between 1960 and 1964, she made just three broadcasts as a pianist, but seven as a singer. 1960 was a pivotal year. Emily appeared at Glyndebourne (as Emily Maire – Mair sounding just a bit too Ayrshire for Glyndebourne management) singing the First Boy in
erformances on April 22 and 24. Tickets here There was a real sense of occasion at the opening of the newly-formed Wellington Opera company. Auckland-based NZ Opera seems strangely reluctant to produce full-scale operas, so there was an opportunity for a local venture to fill the gap and fulfil perceived wants. Opera is a notoriously complex and expensive medium, so to form a new company virtually from scratch is a tremendous achievement and a credit to the enterprise and drive of all involved, not least in securing significant funding. Covid has been a world-wide scourge to the performing arts, but this has worked to advantage in relatively safe New Zealand, allowing this new company to enlist the services of New Zealand singers previously plying their trade successfully in Europe or the USA and a finer cast could hardly be desired.
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