New Zealand Opera appoints new General Director

New Zealand Opera appoints new General Director

Monday, 18 June 2018– New Zealand Opera has announced the appointment of Thomas de Mallet Burgess as General Director.

Thomas joins New Zealand Opera after five years with Perth-based company Lost & Found, whose mission is to present unusual operas in found spaces that speak to the resonance of the work. Alongside his role as Artistic Director and Founder at Lost & Found, he has also managed one of Western Australia’s largest cultural programmes at the City of Joondalup.

Thomas has established an international reputation for directing award-wining opera and leading ground-breaking research in opera performer training. His substantial credits as an opera director encompass a variety of approaches from traditional to more innovative and collaborative works and include critically acclaimed productions for national companies such as The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Canadian Opera Company, Opera Ireland and one of the world’s most important festivals, Wexford Festival Opera.

Speaking about the appointment, John Harvey, New Zealand Opera’s Chair, says, “Thomas is a hugely respected and highly skilled opera professional and we are delighted to have appointed someone of his calibre to the role. He has significant experience across the art form, authoring research and training publications, directing major productions, founding and running Lost & Found, and the development of cross-cultural productions and programmes in celebration of indigenous culture. This wealth of experience will ensure that New Zealand Opera is in very good hands”.

Thomas de Mallet Burgess says he is delighted to be appointed General Director of New Zealand Opera. “I am excited by the challenge of leading a national opera company and providing the artistic vision necessary to broaden the reach and relevancy of the art form and grow a new diverse audience through a balance of innovative and traditional approaches. New Zealand Opera has a high reputation in the international world of opera and I am committed to enhancing that position by leading from New Zealand.”

Thomas will take up the position of General Director on 16 July 2018 and will work alongside the Board to finalise the Company’s existing plans for 2019. He succeeds Stuart Maunder, who was recently appointed Artistic Director of State Opera South Australia.

Biography

Thomas de Mallet Burgess was born in the UK and is a graduate of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University. He has established an international reputation for directing award-winning opera and leading ground-breaking research in opera performer training.

His substantial credits as an opera director encompass critically acclaimed productions for national companies such as The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Canadian Opera Company, Opera Ireland and one of the world’s most important festivals, Wexford Festival Opera. Other credits include theatre productions in the UK, Belgium, Romania and the commissioning and development in Ireland of plays by new Irish writers on contemporary social themes.

He is author of the ground-breaking performer training work: “The Singing and Acting Handbook” (published Routledge London and New York) and a regular visiting artist at conservatories worldwide, including most recently Visiting Fellow at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).

His strong commitment to the role of the arts in encouraging communities to find their voice has resulted in a sustained history of collaboration with the Learning and Participation programmes of major organisations in the UK such as The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Welsh National Opera, Opera North and English Touring Opera (where as Education Consultant he pioneered a three-year pioneering programme on music with the Deaf Community).

Before arriving in Australia, he was Creative Director at Wexford Opera House with responsibility for creating a cohesive artistic vision for Ireland’s first, purpose-built state of the art opera house and home to the Wexford Opera Festival. For the past five years he has been living in Perth, WA where he founded and is Artistic Director at Lost & Found, a new opera company with a mission to present unusual operas in found spaces that speak to the resonance of the work. Lost & Found has been hailed as “the nation’s most innovative opera company” (Opera Magazine) and “one of the few genuinely disruptive arts organisations in Australia” (The West Australian).

Alongside his role with Lost & Found, he also managed one of Western Australia’s largest cultural programmes at the City of Joondalup that included arts festivals, multiple concert seasons, an Eisteddfod, multiple visual arts programmes, international arts residencies, a cutting-edge contemporary fashion programme, a cross-cultural programme in celebration of Indigenous Australian culture and special events that contributed to the cultural identity of the City. Thomas is a peer assessor for Australia Council and was recently nominated as Australian Artist of the Year (Limelight Magazine, 2017).

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