OPERA IN A DAYS BAY GARDEN
Georges BIZET – Les Pêcheurs des Perles – Opera in Three Acts
Cast: Zurga – Kieran Rayner (baritone)
Nadir – Zachary McCulloch (tenor)
Léila – Madison Nonoa (soprano)
Nourabad – Jushua Jamieson (bass)
Villagers – Francesca Fagan, Lizzie Summers, Jo Pegler,
Charlotte Secker, Elias Nguyen, William McElwee,
Charle Rainey, Matthew Terry, Joseph Clinton
Director: Rhona Fraser
Conductor: Howard Moody
Rehearsal Pianist: Catherine Norton
Costumes: Ishbel Mclachlan
Refreshments: Seresin Estate Wine
New Zealand School Of Music
Orchestra: Leader – Anne Loeser
Kristina Zelkinska / Ursula Evans / Janet Armstrong (violins)
Victoria Janecke (viola)
Eleanor Carter (‘cello)
Malcolm Struthers (double bass)
Michelle Velvin (harp)
Karen Batten / Jen Vaughan (flutes)
Finn Bodkin (oboe)
Romola Smith (clarinet)
Tor Chiles (bassoon)
Ben Whitton (timpani/percussion)
Canna House, Days Bay, Wellington
12th, 14th, 15th February 2026
Opera in a Day’s Bay Garden is a venture begun in 2010 by Wellington singer, producer and director Rhona Fraser, at her family’s verdantly-appointed native-bush-surrounded residence “Canna House” on the eastern shores of Wellington’s harbour. Its productions have been delighting Wellingtonians and enthusiasts from further afield ever since, even earning the sobriquet of “New Zealand’s Glyndebourne” from a commentator at one point, though on a somewhat more intimate physical scale than that of the world-famous Lewes, East Sussex Festival Opera UK location.
My own first experience of a Days Bay Garden production was in 2012 with Handel’s Alcina, the story’s “magical island” setting fitting the harbourside venue like a glove. A mere handful of instances aside I’d been prevented by circumstance from attending more recent productions, so it was a particular joy to return for Bizet’s enchanting youthful work Les Pêcheurs des Perles (“The Pearl Fishers”) – one, like Alcina, with a scenario eminently suited to the Days Bay setting’s location.
The opening night performance was in the capable hands of conductor Howard Moody, a Days Bay stalwart from previous occasions, here joining with orchestra leader Anne Loeser in curating every note to telling effect. The players did a splendid job, belying their reduced numbers with on-the-spot accompaniments, and holding their own against even the continuous cicada-accompaniment ambiences from the bush-clad surroundings – I enjoyed many a felicitous detail, and particularly the bassoon’s adroit handling of the melody normally given to the horn introducing Leila’s Act 2 Cavatina “Comme autrefois”.
Each of the three principal singers were Day’s Bay “veterans” who had honed their youthful skills in previous productions, here returning from further offshore studies with the increased confidence and flair born of experience. They were supported by an attractively youthful chorus who brought energy and purpose to their singing, making up for lack of numbers with focused tones and well-disciplined ensemble (particularly impressive in moments when the groups’ antiphonal exchanges from different parts of the garden unerringly “found one another” to mellifluous effect!
Together these forces brought out a performance which I thought in places most satisfying, with each soloist “sounding” their character’s dramatic and musical raison d’etre – Kieran Rayner was a consistently sonorous Zurga, splendidly conveying the character’s plethora of conflicting emotions regarding his friendship/rivalry with his old friend Nadir (here sounded beautifully throughout by tenor, Zachary McCullogh). Of course, everybody awaits in breathless anticipation the opera’s great Act One tenor/ baritone duet Au fond di temple saint, and in which both singers here were, I thought, well-matched in tone and intensity – but elsewhere (apart from a slight loss of tone at the very top of his range) Rayner vividly conveyed his character Zurga’s anguish and jealousy regarding his friend Nadir’s reawakened passion for Léila, the beautiful Priestess. And, as Nadir, I thought McCulloch’s delivery of the Romance “Je croix entendre encore” beautifully and sensitively phrased (what a treacherous piece for tenors it can be!). Small point – I wish he’d taken his hands out of his pockets a bit more often when singing!
Madison Nonoa was Léila, the mysterious virgin Priestess whose beauty had once stirred the hearts of both Zurga and Nadir to rivalry and jealousy, and whose appearance in the opera as a protector of the village’s pearl-fishing boats while at sea reflames old feelings between the two. She looked and sounded the part admirably except for a face-concealing veil which seemed to give her more trouble than security – and I felt she needed some kind of pedestal on which to stand upon entering – some focal point she could make her own and which would have helped create the necessary “Priestess” aura. Though some of her softer singing was lost in those vast out-of-door spaces, she seemed wonderfully at ease with the role’s effective stratospheric vocal quality. But she needed a shrine to which she could bring this quality – and sitting on the floor (which she did with Nadir) meant that she was obscured by rows of low-strung flags whose decorative effect was more distracting than festive. When in control of her distracting veil her voice and character enchanted as they should, and she was more than a match for bass Joshua Jamieson’s capable and sonorous Nourabad (a small part), the guardian High Priest assigned to supervise her activities.
Despite the production offering no surtitles, whose presence would have finetuned some of the story’s detailing, the story’s overall impact was readily conveyed by the singing and playing, the venue allowing its audience a proximity to the sound and action of the drama, a kind of involvement which intuitively engaged one’s emotions – even Nonoa’s recalcitrant veil couldn’t distract from her character’s allure and fascination.
The production with its clean-cut, orange-and-white, almost religious cult garb for the indigenous islanders had a curious “updated” aura about it, most noticeable when the villagers were enjoined by Nourabad to construct a “burning at the stake” kind of pyre to which they added lashings of what looked like petrol, before tying up the traitorous Nadir and the impious Léila to the structure to put an end to them both.
We were, as it turned out, blessed by clear, settled weather on the opening night – besides the enchanting “cicada chorus” that accompanied the singers the only other natural distraction I noticed was a briefly annoying airborne “bug” (which occasioned an involuntary “swat” from the tenor during the famous duet, adding to the performance’s energies!). Director Rhona Fraser subsequently and cannily brought forward the timing of the final day;s performance by way of thwarting the projected onset of inclement weather, which strategy seemed to work – while not a replication of Thursday evening’s elemental splendours the worst was adroitly avoided and the show went on!