A Taste of the 2014 NZ Opera Season

A NEW SEASON BEGINS

Issued by New Zealand Opera, May 2014

Update for Events Guides / Diaries

A TASTE OF THE 2014 NZ Opera season

This is a diary / events guide update for your interest, reference and publication.

The New Zealand Opera 2014 season is in full preparation, with a tantalising debut of the first work, a three-way co-production of La traviata, staged to critical appreciation in Adelaide recently (opened 3 May).

Verdi’s La traviata and Mozart’s Don Giovanni will be performed in Auckland and Wellington, with Puccini’s La bohème in Christchurch.

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LA TRAVIATA

(Auckland: 19 – 29 June; Wellington: 11 – 19 July)

Verdi’s most frequently performed opera, with familiar melodies, is musical storytelling at its most spectacular, combining reckless love, masked revelry, family strife and self-sacrifice.

This new production, co-produced with The State Opera of South Australia and Opera Queensland, is created by the trio who brought audiences last year the beautiful and memorable NZO season of Madame Butterfly: director Kate Cherry and her design team of Christina Smith and Matt Scott.

Latest reviewer comments of the Australian cast production, with New Zealand-made set and costumes included:

a winner – world class

Opera with soul. A lusty and beautifully engineered story

a glorious musical soapie à la Moulin Rouge

the opera is, in a word, brilliant

a triumph and a feast for the eyes

LA TRAVIATA by Giuseppe Verdi

A co-production between New Zealand Opera, The State Opera of South Australia
and Opera Queensland

Sung in Italian with English surtitles

CREATIVE TEAM

Conductor EMMANUEL JOEL-HORNAK

Director KATE CHERRY

Production Designer CHRISTINA SMITH

Lighting Designer MATT SCOTT

CAST

Violetta Valéry LORINA GORE

Alfredo Germont SAMUEL SAKKER

Giorgio Germont DAVID STEPHENSON

Baron Douphol JARED HOLT

Marchese d’Obigny WADE KERNOT (KIERAN RAYNER 13, 15 July)

Doctor Grenvil DAVID HIBBARD

Gastone OLIVER SEWELL (Akld), ANDREW GRENON (Wgtn)

Annina WENDY DOYLE

Giuseppe ANDREW GRENON (Akld), LAURENCE WALLS (Wgtn)

Accompanied by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and Orchestra Wellington

Featuring the Chapman Tripp Opera Chorus

LA TRAVIATA

Auckland – ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre

19, 21, 25, 27 June 7.30pm; 29 June 2.30pm

Wellington – St James Theatre

11, 17, 19 July 7.30pm; 13 July 2.30pm; 15 July 6pm

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LA BOHÈME

(Christchurch: 15 – 18 July)

Patrick Nolan’s production of Puccini’s immortal La bohème played to sell-out houses when it was first presented in 2008, garnering rave reviews from press and public alike. Now Christchurch will experience this endearing, passionate tragedy that somehow remains uplifting and reassuring with its much-loved, haunting, famous arias.

Arguably the most popular of all operas, Puccini’s lyrical tour de force has a universality and contemporary perspective, with an energetic and youthful cast of almost entirely New Zealand origin.

LA BOHÈME by Giacomo Puccini

A New Zealand Opera production

Sung in Italian with English surtitles

CREATIVE TEAM

Conductor FRANCESCO PASQUALETTI

Director PATRICK NOLAN

Restage Director STEVEN ANTHONY WHITING

Set Designer RALPH MYERS

Costume Designer ELIZABETH WHITING

Lighting Designer BERNIE TAN

CAST

Mimì TALISE TREVIGNE

Rodolfo SHAUN DIXON

Marcello PHILLIP RHODES

Musetta MADELEINE PIERARD

Schaunard ROBERT TUCKER

Colline WADE KERNOT

Benoit RICHARD GREAGER

Alcindoro RICHARD GREEN

Parpignol OLIVER SEWELL

Accompanied by the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra

Featuring the Chapman Tripp Opera Chorus

LA BOHÈME

Christchurch – CBS Canterbury Arena

15, 16, 18 July 7.30pm

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DON GIOVANNI

(Auckland: 18 – 28 September; Wellington: 11 – 18 October)

New Zealand Opera’s third production for 2014 is Mozart’s Don Giovanni, which premièred in Christchurch last year.

Director Sara Brodie gives us a fresh and probing take on Mozart’s great masterpiece, which looks at a society in the throes of moral, and to some extent social collapse. Lively, romantic music contrasts the contemporary Spanish setting, and the raw, edgy nature of this production, which Sara Brodie calls “psychologically complex and thrilling”. We ask the question, she says, whether the Don is “a lascivious villain or loveable hero”.

Most of the original cast is returning, with costumes and set designed by the popular and applauded duo, New Zealanders Elizabeth Whiting and John Verryt.

NZ Opera’s vivacious Director of Music, Wyn Davies, returns to conduct.

DON GIOVANNI by Amadeus Mozart

A New Zealand Opera production

Sung in Italian with English surtitles

CREATIVE TEAM

Conductor WYN DAVIES

Director SARA BRODIE

Set Designer JOHN VERRYT

Costume Designer ELIZABETH WHITING

Lighting Designer JEREMY FERN

CAST

Don Giovanni MARK STONE

Leporello WARWICK FYFE

Donna Elvira ANNA LEESE

Donna Anna LISA HARPER-BROWN

Don Ottavio JAEWOO KIM

Commendatore JUD ARTHUR

Zerlina AMELIA BERRY

Masetto ROBERT TUCKER

Accompanied by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and Orchestra Wellington

Featuring the Chapman Tripp Opera Chorus

DON GIOVANNI

Auckland – ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre

18, 20, 24, 26 September 7.30pm; 28 September 2.30pm

Wellington – St James Theatre

11, 16, 18 October 7.30pm; 14 October 6pm

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BOOKINGS:

NZ Opera Box Office: Tel 0800 NZOPERA (0800 696 737) or bookings@nzopera.co.nz

Auckland: Ticketmaster, Tel 0800 TICKETMASTER (0800 111 999) or www.ticketmaster.co.nz

Wellington: Ticketek, Tel 0800 TICKETEK (0800 842 538) or www.ticketek.co.nz

Christchurch: Ticketek, Tel 0800 TICKETEK (0800 842 538) or www.ticketek.co.nz

*Booking fees apply

New Zealand Opera receives core funding from Creative New Zealand and Auckland Council through the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Act

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Further information: www.nzopera.com

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