Strong cast opens Handel's Oreste in Auckland

The audience for Lucia di Lammermoor was treated to a young, very believable cast showcasing a star in the making in the form of New Zealand-born Samoan soprano Marlena Devoe. 

Auckland Opera Studio’s offering this year was an ebullient rendition of Mozart’s immortal comedy Così fan tutte. The recitatives were mostly replaced by English dialogue, though the accompanied recitatives were maintained. No composer makes more of recitative than Mozart so it was a shame to lose them, but the cast delivered the dialogue clearly and it contributed to a fast-paced, thrilling show.

Leonardo García-Alarcón's exhumation of Bembo's work proves a winner, in a hyper-quirky staging by Netia Jones with Julie Fuchs as the pick of the fine singers.

Amy Lane directs an intimate staging of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s 2018 chamber opera in the compact Milton Court Theatre. 

Beth Taylor gives the lows and highs of Handel's heroics an almighty, whole-body shakedown in Sinéad O'Neill’s new staging of Handel's Orlando. 

Bruno Ravella's splendid 2021 production of Strauss' opera of Viennese manners returns with a fine cast.