Press Release – Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
On Saturday 8 May the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra (APO) will present Beethoven’s only opera
Fidelio under the baton of Music Director Giordano Bellincampi and featuring an all-star kiwi cast, led by international opera sensations Kirstin Sharpin and Simon O’Neill.
Audiences can look forward to being swept away by Beethoven’s lyrical genius paired against a story of political and ethical resolve. A so-called “rescue opera” inspired by a true story of the French Revolution,
Fidelio tells the story of Leonore whose husband, Florestan has been secretly imprisoned by his political rival – the corrupt and dastardly Don Pizarro. Leonore disguises herself as a young man called Fidelio and, determined to rescue Florestan, secures a job in the prison where he is incarcerated, and gains the trust of gaoler Rocco.
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.
It is one of a swathe of shows that should draw big crowds to the gardens and some associated venues on Wednesday night. Another is
Dakota of the White Flats, a work of theatre for young people and adults that begins a three-night, three-matinee run at the Meteor Theatre. Adapted from the novel by Philip Ridley, it tells the story of a fearless 14-year-old who lives in a bleak housing complex on the edge of a polluted canal that is filled with monstrous mutated eels. Lovers of dance have a potentially thrilling experience in store for them in the form of Hurihuri, a work that has been constructed around the movement of the wheel, and fuses hip-hop and contemporary movement with traditional kapa haka.
Picnic benefits from return of opera stars
Amelia Berry wowed last year.
Six of New Zealand’s top opera stars will perform at Auckland Opera Studio’s Matakana Summer Picnic Concert this month.
The event will see the return of favourites, soprano Amelia Berry and tenor Ipu Laga’aia, who performed at the picnic last year. They will be joined by sopranos Amina Edris and Natasha Wilson, bass-baritone Paul Whelan and tenor Oliver Sewell.
They will be accompanied by pianist Claire Caldwell.
Opera Studio director Frances Wilson says one of the positive outcomes of the Covid-19 pandemic is that many gifted singers usually based overseas have returned home to New Zealand
Mountain Scene
January 29, 2021
By TRACEY ROXBURGH
Closed borders are providing an extra boost for next month’s Twilight Opera, the stage for which is a recently-designated ‘garden of national interest’ at Dalefield.
Produced by the Arrowtown Creative Arts Society (ACAS), with Auckland’s Opera Studio, it’ll be the second event of its kind held at Bruce and Margot Robinson’s ‘Birchwood Garden’, at Birchwood Road.
Five of the seven names now signed on for the February 21 concert should be on contract overseas, singing with American and European companies, were it not for Covid.
Following on from last year’s operatic coup, which saw ACAS secure leading opera tenor Simon O’Neill to perform at Arrowtown’s Athenaeum Hall a sold-out performance regarded as one of the best staged in the historic hall the society’s now doubled down.