Magic of a kind was certainly in the air both leading up to and throughout the performance of Handel's Alcina, staged in the garden of Canna House, the Days Bay home of one of the singers in the cast, soprano Rhona Fraser, who took the part of Morgana in the production. With a director, Sara Brodie, whose vision, theatrical instinct and creative capacities made light of the difficulties of... read more

Apparently there were five different scores for German’s light opera, premiered in Manchester in 1907.  Since it became so popular, it was performed frequently, the last version being from 1913; a concert version for performance by choral societies (sung by the Orpheus Choir’s predecessor in the Hutt Valley in 1953 and 1957). Michael Vinten has taken the music from various versions of  Tom Jones, including film and television versions, introducing... read more

42nd Street is a relatively unusual case of a musical that saw the light of day as a musical film (in 1933) and was re-created for the Broadway stage in 1980. By that time the lyricist (Al Dubin) was dead, the choreographer (Gower Champion) died on opening night while composer Harry Warren died a year later. The Broadway reincarnation was produced by David Merrick. And it is probably true that... read more

The first thing to remark is the unfortunate clash between this concert and that in the Michael Fowler Centre by the Vector Wellington Orchestra with pianist Diedre Irons. But in addition to that, there was a concert by the Wellington Community Choir next door, in the Town Hall main auditorium.

Though there were only two pieces, both by Debussy, that could be regarded as standard repertoire, the audience... read more

It was a points decision, and a close call, but most who attended the opening night of NBR New Zealand Opera's double-header of CAV and PAG would, I think, have agreed that the latter (Pagliacci), boxing far above its weight on the night, landed too many telling counter-punches for the big guns of its glamorous rival (Cavalleria) - Intermezzo or no Intermezzo! Both operas gave their supporters plenty of... read more

Enchanting! - put simply, a "must-see!" production - so all-pervading was the atmosphere emanating from the stage of the Memorial Theatre I found myself enjoying a child's delight at the magical evocations of sight and sound, the production taking me to what felt like the beating heart of a creative fusion of words, movement and music. I did have wits about me enough to scribble a few things in... read more

"I do my best to satisfy you all" sings Captain Corcoran to the crew of H.M.S.Pinafore - and we in the audience at Wellington 's Opera House could well have, at the end of the evening, echoed the crew's reply, regarding the production, "And with you we're quite content!" For this was a rollicking good night in the theatre - the stage spectacle entertaining and colourful, and the music... read more

Opportunities both gloriously taken and frustratingly unrealized - that was my immediate reaction to the Royal New Zealand Ballet's "Stravinsky traversal" during which we saw and heard settings of the music for two of the composer's ballets, (including the infamous Le Sacre du Printemps) and a full-scale production of Petroushka, both works among the most famous of their kind of all time. Allowing time for my feelings to settle... read more