Wellington Opera
   HOME
*





Wellington Opera
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. History 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. 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 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) 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. Legends recount that Kupe discovered and explored the region in about the 10th century, with initial settlement by Māori iwi such as Rangitāne and Muaūpoko. The disruptions of the Musket Wars led to them being overwhelmed by northern iwi such as Te Āti Awa by the early 19th century. Wellington's current form was originally designed by Captain William Mein Smith, the first Surveyor General for Edward Wakefield's New Zealand Company, in 1840. The Wellington urban area, which only includes urbanised ar ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Sara Brodie
Sara Brodie (born 1970) is a New Zealand theatre director and choreographer. Biography Brodie was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. She moved to London and spent seven years working there as an actress, dancer, casting director and behind the scenes before returning to New Zealand in 1996. In 2000, Brodie completed a master's degree in theatre from Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ..., specialising in Laban movement analysis. She taught movement and acting in London and then returned to Wellington to work as head of acting at the Wellington Performing Arts Centre. In 2019, Brodie was appointed production director for a newly formed opera company in Christchurch, Toi Toi Opera. References {{DEFAULTSORT:Brodie, Sara Living ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 are variable but often include fever, cough, headache, fatigue, breathing difficulties, Anosmia, loss of smell, and Ageusia, loss of taste. Symptoms may begin one to fourteen days incubation period, after exposure to the virus. At least a third of people who are infected Asymptomatic, do not develop noticeable symptoms. Of those who develop symptoms noticeable enough to be classified as patients, most (81%) develop mild to moderate symptoms (up to mild pneumonia), while 14% develop severe symptoms (dyspnea, Hypoxia (medical), hypoxia, or more than 50% lung involvement on imaging), and 5% develop critical symptoms (respiratory failure ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

2016 Kaikōura Earthquake
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 (11:02 on 13 November UTC). Ruptures occurred on multiple faults and the earthquake has been described as the "most complex earthquake ever studied". The earthquake started at about north-east of Culverden and south-west of the tourist town of Kaikōura and at a depth of approximately 15 kilometres (9 mi). The complex sequence of ruptures lasted for about two minutes. The cumulative magnitude of the ruptures was 7.8, with the largest amount of that energy released far to the north of the epicentre. Over $1.8 billion in insurance claims were received. There were two deaths, in Kaikōura and Mount Lyford. Earthquake A complex sequence of ruptures with a combined magnitude of 7.8 started at 00:02:56 NZDT on 14 November 2016 and lasted approximately two minutes. The hypocentre (the point where the ruptur ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


St James Theatre, Wellington
The St. James Theatre (previously known as His Majesty's Theatre, and the Westpac St. James Theatre from 1997 to 2007, usually referred to simply as "The St. James") 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, Wellington, Courtenay Place, the main street of Wellington's entertainment district, opposite the Reading Cinema complex. The building is number 83... The building is classified as a "Category I" ("places of special or outstanding historical or cultural heritage significance or value") historic place by Heritage New Zealand. History The St. James has had a long history, with its success in its early years, a near demolition in the 1980s and to its return to the city's cultural light in the late 1990s. The theatre's land had been used as a church and volunteer hall prior to it being bought by the ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

La Traviata
''La traviata'' (; ''The Fallen Woman'') is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on ''La Dame aux camélias'' (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' adapted from his own 1848 novel. The opera was originally titled ''Violetta'', after the main character. It was first performed on 6 March 1853 at La Fenice opera house in Venice. Piave and Verdi wanted to follow Dumas in giving the opera a contemporary setting, but the authorities at La Fenice insisted that it be set in the past, "c. 1700". It was not until the 1880s that the composer's and librettist's original wishes were carried out and " realistic" productions were staged. ''La traviata'' has become immensely popular and is among the most frequently performed of all operas. Composition history For Verdi, the years 1851 to 1853 were filled with operatic activity. First, he had agreed with the librettist Salvadore Cammarano on a subject for what would ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the help of a local patron. Verdi came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Vincenzo Bellini, whose works significantly influenced him. In his early operas, Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy. He also participated briefly as an elected politician. The chorus "Va, pensiero" from his early opera ''Nabucco'' (1842), and similar choruses in later operas, were much in the spirit of the unification movement, and the composer himself became esteemed as a representative of these ideals. An intensely private person, Verdi did not seek to ingratiate himself with popular movements. As he became professionally successful, he was able ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

The Dominion Post (Wellington)
''The Dominion Post'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in Wellington, New Zealand. It is owned by media business Stuff Ltd, formerly the New Zealand branch of Australian media company Fairfax Media. Weekday issues are now in tabloid format, and its Saturday edition is in broadsheet format. Since 2020 the editor has been Anna Fifield. History ''The Dominion Post'' was created in July 2002 when Independent Newspapers Limited (INL) amalgamated two Wellington printed and published metropolitan broadsheet newspapers, '' The Evening Post'', an evening paper first published on 8 February 1865, and '' The Dominion'', a morning paper first published on Dominion Day, 26 September 1907. ''The Dominion'' was distributed throughout the lower half of the North Island, as far as Taupo, where it met with Auckland's ambitiously named ''The New Zealand Herald''. ''The Evening Post'' was not so widely distributed, but had a much greater circulation than ''The Dominion''. INL sold ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Orchestra Wellington
Orchestra Wellington is New Zealand's oldest professional regional orchestra, based in the capital city of Wellington. It hosts an annual subscription series of concerts in the Michael Fowler Centre, performing varied repertoire from the Classical, Romantic and contemporary periods. The orchestra commissions and performs works by New Zealand composers, with John Psathas the current composer-in-residence. It also performs large choral works with the Orpheus Choir of Wellington, and regularly accompanies Wellington stage performances by the Royal New Zealand Ballet, New Zealand Opera, and Wellington Opera. History The orchestra was founded by New Zealand violinist Alex Lindsay as the Alex Lindsay String Orchestra in 1948, and established as an incorporated society, the Wellington Regional Orchestra Foundation, in 1950. It was renamed the Lindsay String Orchestra of Wellington in 1967, and re-established with assistance from the Arts Council of New Zealand in 1973 as the Well ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Opera House, Wellington
The Opera House is a proscenium theatre in Wellington, New Zealand, located on Manners Street opposite Te Aro Park. History The present Opera House replaced earlier buildings on Manners Street. The Imperial Opera House opened in 1878, but burnt down a year later. Construction work on the present building began in 1911. It was named ''The Grand Opera House'' in May 1913 with a plan to open early on Boxing Night that year. The principal architect William Pitt was based in Melbourne, Australia, and much of the work was overseen by Wellington architect Albert Liddy. The opera house finally opened on Easter Saturday of 12 April 1914 to an evening performance by the American Burlesque Company, with a full seating capacity of 2141 in three levels of stalls, dress circle and gallery, including 50 box seats. The original seating upholstery was made and installed by the Wellington company Kirkcaldie & Stains, and the interior features fine plaster mouldings and an ornate dome. The bui ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Kerry Prendergast
Dame Kerry Leigh Prendergast (née Ferrier, born 28 March 1953) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 33rd Mayor of Wellington between 2001 and 2010, succeeding Mark Blumsky. She was the second woman to hold the position, after Fran Wilde. Early life Prendergast was born in Christchurch but grew up in Tawa, attending Tawa College (1966–69), where she was captain of the college netball team. She qualified as a registered nurse and then trained as a midwife and was later awarded the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society Long Service Award in 1991. She has also been a voluntary grief counsellor. She holds a MBA degree from Victoria University of Wellington. Local-body politics Prendergast started her political life as a Tawa Borough councillor in 1986. In 1989 she was elected to Wellington City Council and was re-elected every three years until 2010. In 1995 Prendergast became Deputy Mayor to Mark Blumsky. In the 1999 general election Prendergast stood as a National l ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Don Giovanni
''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legend about a libertine as told by playwright Tirso de Molina in his 1630 play '' El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra''. It is a ''dramma giocoso'' blending comedy, melodrama and supernatural elements (although the composer entered it into his catalogue simply as ''opera buffa''). It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the National Theater (of Bohemia), now called the Estates Theatre, on 29 October 1787. ''Don Giovanni'' is regarded as one of the greatest operas of all time and has proved a fruitful subject for commentary in its own right; critic Fiona Maddocks has described it as one of Mozart's "trio of masterpieces with librettos by Da Ponte". Composition and premiere The opera was commissioned after the succes ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]