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

In invigorating performances of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven in Auckland, Suzuki's interpretative approach evokes the sensibilities of historically informed performance. 

Daniil Trifonov takes New Zealand by storm with a performance of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto of technical command and musical artistry.

It was clear that there is much more to Lane’s conception of these works than mere surface beauty. 

The NZSO are on sparkling form in Puccini arias and other operatic orchestral passages; Eliza Boom shows her potential as a Puccini singer of the future.

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

David Fray's mannered Bach is a let-down, but Karl-Heinz Steffens brings out the spacious majesty in Bruckner's Ninth Symphony. 

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. 

With all soloists demonstrating charming ornamentation, a wonderful sense of fun and ease pervades the APO's performance.

Centred around Scriabin’s mystical Poem of Ecstasy, a thrilling journey through the byways of twentieth century music takes in New Zealand, Finland and France.

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.

Cavernous acoustics hamper individual lines in the latest concert in the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's “Baroque and Beyond” series.

The strings brought gleaming tone to their long phrases, the cellos particularly gorgeous in tone and deeply felt in phrasing, and New built each restatement to glorious and emotional crushing climax. 

From the oppressed Catholic minority of 16th-century England to contemporary settings, The Gesualdo Six bring their Wishing Tree programme to Auckland. 

Much delayed by the pandemic, Giordano Bellincampi's Beethoven symphony cycle with the Auckland PO finally reaches its conclusion with a triumphant closing concert. 

New Zealand-born violinist Geneva Lewis soars in Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto, framed in Giordano Bellincampi's programme by Korngold and Dvořák.

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.

Hahn balanced tranquility and ferocity in Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto, and conductor Gemma New drew out an especially nuanced reading of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony.

An excitingly theatrical Verdi Requiem under Giordano Bellincampi, benefitting greatly from a mostly stunning line-up of solo singers.

An astonishing showcase, with Christian Li tackling both works with technical skill and swagger that belied his tender age. 

The slow movement is gorgeous in an unashamedly romantic fashion and Morrison, some moments of uncertain intonation aside, gave a poetic rendition, at times fining his sound down to the most exquisite filigree of sound. 

A combination of Western orchestral tradition and traditional Māori culture proves a fascinating and a worthwhile contribution to New Zealand’s orchestral repertoire.

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

Giordano Bellincampi presides over a fleet and crisp performance of Beethoven's only opera, performed in Auckland Town Hall. 

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.

In each brief and catchy excerpt, the ensemble played with infectious vitality and admirable precision.

De Waart once again showed a formidable grasp of the musical structure so that the occasional outbursts of violence made thematic sense and a strong feeling of tension led up to the final cry of despair.

Edo de Waart and the NZSO thrill with the old warhorse that is Schubert's ninth as much as in an insightful and exciting rendition of Salonen's Violin Concerto.

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 an altogether riotous and highly enjoyable performance of a wacky work, one long overdue to be heard in this country.

A case of musical minds being in particularly close interpretative sync, revealing the music not through showy display but through restrained but intense concentration.

In the exquisite singing line of the second movement, the appeal was not just in her beauty of tone but in the concentrated feeling Mullova brought to the shaping of each phrase.

This was a true tour de force and a fitting climax to a rather miraculous examination of counterpoint through musical history.

This was astonishing and gripping vocalism from a true master of Berlioz style.

The Queen of the Night appeared as a malevolent giant spider, complete with exoskeleton, threatening Tamino with her stabbing limbs and summoning hordes of smaller spiders to writhe over Pamina when the latter hesitated to commit to Sarastro's murder.

Bellincampi’s way with this symphony was impressive: he knitted the composer’s sometimes diffuse structural cells into something cohesive, with no loss of tension in the various silences and odd transitional moments.

The vocal items in this programme were the most successful, driven as they were by Bauer's searing interpretations.

Stephen Layton returns to Auckland to continue his series of Bach's choral masterpieces with the APO. 

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.

An evening made up of five Mozart divertimentos had its longueurs, but the Italian period instrument ensemble delighted the audience. 

The Viennese clarinettist joined the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and Carlos Miguel Prieto in a programme of Copland, Weber and Shostakovich.

The New Zealander Heldentenor makes a welcome return to Auckland for Wagner's erotic song cycle. 

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.

Edo de Waart opted frequently for slow, steady tempi that robbed the music of a lot of its inner vitality.

Puccini’s score has many thrilling moments, here taken up by a fascinating if uneven cast of singers.

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

On the basis of this concert, the graduate ensemble Juilliard415 (named after the standard Baroque pitch of 415 Hz) is already of extremely high quality indeed, technically proficient and highly in-tune with Baroque style.