There is no question that this was an outstanding production and while the New Zealand Opera Scene seemed to get up and arms about stepping so far out of the normal look and feel of Opera, it brought people like Taylor to the Opera for the first time and who is now very keen to venture into something more traditional as her curiosity is now in play.
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The Doran family and their associates left a shameful trail of filth and devastation in their wake two years ago, antics which saw them branded worse than pigs by the Mayor of Auckland.
We resigned because one of our jobs as governors is to mitigate risk to the reputation of the company and what I saw, was a huge upswelling of discontent and confusion about the artistic direction of the company. So it was alarming [and] there was a flashpoint that we reached as governors, where we realised that there was no opportunity for us to be able to work as governors any longer. He said that discontent and confusion came from people worried over whether New Zealand Opera was providing the leadership and pastoral care for its constituents and also over a concern of a possible drop in private philanthropic donations and public funding.
New Zealand Opera s 2020 production of Eight Songs for a Mad King.
Photo: Jeff McEwan
A letter from the board chairperson on Tuesday confirmed directors Murray Shaw, Rachael Walkinton and Witi Ihimaera had resigned.
The news comes about two weeks after the company announced its newest production would be based on the saga of the so-called unruly tourists - a story that gripped the media in the summer of 2019 - in an effort to draw in new audiences and tell local stories.
Renowned New Zealand tenor Simon O Neill said, while he was not opposed to that remit, the topic was wrong.