The Wellington Opera Trust | |
 | |
| Formation | 2020 |
|---|---|
| Type | Opera company |
| Location |
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Chair | |
Artistic Director |
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| Website | Official website |
Wellington Opera is an opera company based in Wellington, New Zealand formed in 2020 by the Wellington Opera Trust, a charitable organisation, with funding and support from Creative New Zealand, Wellington City Council and the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation. [1]
The company's first staging was a production of Mozart's Don Giovanni in Wellington's Opera House directed by Sara Brodie, in April 2021. The cast included New Zealand-born bass-baritone James Ioelu, Christian Thurston, and Amelia Berry, accompanied by Orchestra Wellington conducted by artistic director Matthew Ross. The performances were well attended and received positive reviews. [2] [3]
The 2022 production of Verdi's La traviata reopened Wellington's largest theatre, the St James Theatre, after it was closed in 2018 for earthquake strengthening work after the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake. The opening night performance was somewhat hampered by COVID-19 infections among the cast and crew, but was nonetheless received positively by the audience and reviewers. [4]
Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metro area, and is the administrative centre of the Wellington Region. It is the world's southernmost capital of a sovereign state. Wellington features a temperate maritime climate, and is the world's windiest city by average wind speed.
The Phantom of the Opera is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Charles Hart, and a libretto by Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe. Based on the 1910 French novel of the same name by Gaston Leroux, it tells the story of a beautiful soprano, Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious, masked musical genius living in the subterranean labyrinth beneath the Paris Opéra House.
Kaikōura is a town on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 1, 180 km north of Christchurch. The town has an estimated permanent resident population of 2,330.
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / Ōtākaro flows through the centre of the city, with an urban park along its banks. The city's territorial authority population is 389,300 people, and includes a number of smaller urban areas as well as rural areas. The population of the urban area is 377,900 people. Christchurch is the second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand, after Auckland. It is the major urban area of an emerging sub-region known informally as Greater Christchurch. Notable smaller urban areas within this sub-region include Rangiora and Kaiapoi in Waimakariri District, north of the Waimakariri River, and Rolleston and Lincoln in Selwyn District to the south.
Anna Yuryevna Netrebko is a Russian operatic soprano who has an active international career and performed prominently at the Salzburg Festival, Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, and The Royal Opera.
Te Aro is an inner-city suburb of Wellington, New Zealand. It comprises the southern part of the central business district including the majority of the city's entertainment district and covers the mostly flat area of city between The Terrace and Cambridge Terrace at the base of Mount Victoria.
Courtenay Place is the main street of the Courtenay Quarter in the Wellington inner-city district of Te Aro.
The St. James Theatre is a stage theatre located in the heart of New Zealand's capital city, Wellington. The present theatre was designed in 1912 by New Zealand theatre designer Henry Eli White. The theatre currently faces on to Courtenay Place, the main street of Wellington's entertainment district, opposite the Reading Cinema complex. The building is number 83.
Queensgate Shopping Centre is a medium sized shopping centre in central Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand. The centre first opened in 1986, and underwent a large scale redevelopment that was completed in August 2006. The centre features over 130 speciality stores.
The Opera House is a proscenium theatre in Wellington, New Zealand, located on Manners Street opposite Te Aro Park.
Wellington City Opera was a professional opera company based in Wellington, New Zealand. It originated in 1982 as the De La Tour Regional Opera Trust, and in 1999, 18 months after rebranding as The National Opera of Wellington, merged with Auckland-based Opera New Zealand to form New Zealand Opera.
Lyell Richard Cresswell was a New Zealand composer of contemporary classical music. He was the younger brother of philosopher Max Cresswell. Cresswell studied in Wellington, Toronto, Aberdeen and Utrecht and lived and worked in Edinburgh from 1985 on. Although he lived more than half his life away from New Zealand, he regarded himself as a New Zealander.
The St James Theatre is a heritage stage theatre and cinema located near Queen Street in Auckland, New Zealand. Built in 1928, it was a replacement for the older Fuller's Opera House and was originally designed for vaudeville acts. Its architect Henry Eli White also designed many other famous theatres in Australia and New Zealand including the St James Theatre in Wellington and the State Theatre in Sydney.
The 2016 Kaikoura earthquake was a magnitude 7.8 (Mw) earthquake in the South Island of New Zealand that occurred two minutes after midnight on 14 November 2016 NZDT. Ruptures occurred on multiple faults and the earthquake has been described as the "most complex earthquake ever studied".
CubaDupa is New Zealand's largest outdoor arts and music festival, celebrating the unique character of Cuba Street, Wellington. It attracts up to 100,000 people. The festival is managed and produced by the non-profit Creative Capital Arts Trust. It is held each year over a weekend in late March. The festival features a dozen music stages, parade groups, street theatre performances, visual art installations, and food and beverage vendors. Some central city streets are closed with Cuba Street in the centre, creating a large pedestrian festival zone. Many artists participate in the CubaDupa programme, including acts from all over the world.
The COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The first case of the disease in New Zealand was reported on 28 February 2020. As of 30 October 2022, the country has had a total of 1,851,689 cases. 2,106 people have died as a result of the virus, with cases recorded in all twenty district health board (DHB) areas. The pandemic first peaked in early April 2020, with 89 new cases recorded per day and 929 active cases. Cases peaked again in October 2021 with 134 new cases reported on 22 October. A total of 7,274,347 COVID tests have been carried out as of 28 June 2022.
Kura Leigh Forrester is a New Zealand comedian, actor and writer. In 2019, she won the Billy T Award for best emerging comedian, for her show Kura Woulda Shoulda. She currently appears as core cast member Desdemona Schmidt on prime-time soap opera Shortland Street.
There have been several COVID-19 protests in New Zealand held since 2020, where people protested the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand, in particular the lockdown measures in place in March–May 2020, August 2020, and August–November 2021 and the later vaccine mandates. Most politicians both within and outside of Government and the vast majority of people have condemned these protests and view them as grandstanding by the organisers, and fear they may have spread the virus.
The following lists events that happened during 2021 in New Zealand.
The following is a list of expected and scheduled events for the year 2022 in New Zealand. This year is the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.
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