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Director Anapela Polata’ivao handles her mixed forces of amateurs and professionals with seamless assurance, the crowds’ movements across the stage showing both clarity and intent. 

New Zealand Opera's new production impresses with its stunning set design and art direction, and its restrained emotional tone. 

Director Simon Phillips takes the opportunity to reshape the setting of Rossini's comic opera to modern-day New Zealand. 

Dove’s masterful adaptation, combined with an ebullient and characterful rendition by New Zealand Opera, make for a very effective and at times, very moving, afternoon at the opera. 

Gareth Farr re-orchestrates Gluck in Neil Ieremia's imaginative reinterpretation of the Orpheus myth for New Zealand Opera. 

Lindy Hume directs a refreshingly uncomplicated new staging for New Zealand Opera, supported by fine musical performances.

In this part-concert and part-lecture, Michael Vinten chronicles the history or New Zealand art song through the lives of the composers and poets featured, stories alternately hilarious and tragic.

Lindy Hume directs a new production of Mozart's masterpiece which proves a constant delight.

The vocal part requires a range covering over five octaves, from the lowest bass notes to a high falsetto and Robert Tucker coped amazingly with the score’s lyrical elements and the various shrieking, whispering and clucking noises he was called upon to create.

Astonishingly vivid performances from an ensemble cast made it one of the most outstanding of their recent productions, an auspicious sign as de Mallet Burgess takes over the General Directorship of the company.

It was hard not to be drawn in by the romance and tragedy as presented by such a sincere, credible and vocally talented young cast and a conductor with such strong identification with the idiom.

Charming and hilarious by turn, this production fields a largely young and Kiwi cast.

Though occasionally entertaining, this production was ultimately unsatisfying as a stage presentation of Bernstein’s work. 

New Zealand Opera continues to strongly advocate Czech works, resulting in a gripping Káťa Kabanová.

A superlative performance of Carmen that was certainly among the most thrilling performances New Zealand Opera has put on in recent memory.

The Bone Feeder was a thought-provoking deliberation on the history, culture and the nature of belonging.

A solid Magic Flute from the performers but marred by the director's foibles. 

Fine singing from Simon O’Neill and Orla Boylan in New Zealand Opera's production of Tosca.

A mixed evening, more notable for the efforts of the cast than for Brodie's modern Don Giovanni concept.

The sole complete opera contribution to Wagner’s anniversary in Auckland this year came in the form of New Zealand Opera’s production of Der fliegende Holländer. This was the first staged performance of a Wagner opera in Auckland for over 20 years (though we’ve had a few in concert), and it is a pleasure to report that New Zealand Opera welcomed the master back with a fascinating performance.

This was the first of three community performances of Noye’s Fludde to be put on by New Zealand Opera this month to celebrate this year’s Britten centenary. Britten wrote this work to be performed predominantly by a cast of amateurs with professional singers filling the roles of Noah, his wife and as the voice of God.

Sometimes in a performance there is a moment when everything just comes together; when every element on stage is operating at such a high level that the performance transcends these elements and causes one to become so immersed in the proceedings that you forget you’re at a performance at all.

The Bartered Bride, premiered in 1866, is considered to be Smetana’s masterpiece in the operatic genre and is widely regarded as the national opera of the Czech Republic. Despite this, for their second and last production this year, New Zealand Opera elected to perform the opera in English translation rather than the original Czech, aiming to speak to their audiences in a more direct fashion.