Opera

A mysterious sea-captain sails the oceans under a curse, allowed ashore only once every seven years to look for the true love which can redeem him Video

New Zealand Opera’s Carmen opening this week is the result of a director/designer partnership going back 25 years. Lindy Hume and Dan Potra made their names in the opera world with their “… Audio

Auckland Soprano singer Natasha Wilson's first love was pop music. She also admits to loving heavy metal - even owning an Iron Maiden t-shirt. Audio

A fallen New Zealand mountaineer has provided inspiration for an opera by British composer Joby Talbot.  Video, Audio

The composer’s many moods - tender, grand, melancholy - are all given free rein in this opera based on Pushkin’s iconic verse novel, which re-imagines the Byronic romantic anti-hero as the definitive… Video

Georgian mezzo-soprano Nino Surguladze is in New Zealand to play the lead role in NZ Opera's season of Carmen - it's Bizet's tale with a feminist twist. While Nino's here, she doing a bit for Tbilisi… Audio

Premièred in the Cairo Opera House in 1871, this tragic love story is set in the time of the pharaohs when Egypt was at war with Ethiopia Video

Based on a medieval legend, this epic tragedy of love and death changed the course of music history Video

Lindy Hume directed her “breakthrough” production of Bizet’s opera Carmen twenty five years ago as an idealistic young feminist. It upset many in its exposure of the sexism inherent in the work… Audio

Beethoven’s only opera is an ode to love, justice, and freedom Video

Set on the island of Crete in the aftermath of the Trojan War, the opera explores the motivations and emotions of humans whose fates seem beyond their own control Video

Guillaume Tell - an opera in four acts based on Schiller’s play about the legend of William Tell Video

La Traviata, an opera in three acts based on the novel, La Dame aux Camélias (The Lady of the Camellias) by Alexandre Dumas Video

Massenet's classic opera Werther is performed by the Metropolitan Opera in New York City Video

An opera in three acts about a water nymph who risks all for the love of a mortal man Video

‘Opera at Sunset’ showcases three of New Zealand’s internationally trained musicians, who will be bringing well-known songs, arias and duets to life this weekend. Soprano Stephanie Acraman and tenor… Audio

The New opera The Bone Feeder opened last night to a full house, but was it a success? English, Cantonese and Māori languages intertwine reflecting the story of a young New Zealand Chinese man trying… Audio

Last night Gareth Farr and Renee Liang’s new opera The Bone Feeder premiered at the Auckland Arts Festival. The new opera is about the bones of nearly 500 Chinese gold miners that were aboard the SS… Audio

One of the most renowned and beloved singers of the 20th century, American soprano Leontyne Price rose to super-stardom at a time when African-American artists were only just beginning to achieve…

In 1902, a steamship called the SS Ventnor sunk off the coast of the Hokianga. On board were the bones of nearly 500 Chinese gold miners for burial in their homeland of Canton. A century later their… Audio, Gallery