THE NEW ZEALAND OPERA SOCIETY

You may interested to have a look at Wendy Dawn Thompson's new website. As Wendy's site mentions, "This year she represented New Zealand in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and reached the finals of both the Rosenblatt Song recital prize and the Singer of the World competitions, each of which were broadcast live to a worldwide audience."

The Really Authentic Gilbert and Sullivan Performance Trust presents Iolanthe (the sixth opera in our complete series of “Savoy” Operas to be performed in historic sequence, 2002-2012) at the Mayfair Theatre, Dunedin on Sunday 11 September 2005 at 2.30 pm, Tuesday 13, Wednesday 14, Friday 16 and Saturday 17 September at 8 pm, with the Southern Sinfonia in the pit and members of the St Kilda Sentinel Brass Band representing on-stage the Band of the Grenadier Guards.

For election year, Iolanthe is a witty satire on parliamentary practice and the law, in which a “dignified and stately” House of Lords “goes to the country” and runs into trouble with a mob of fairies led by their Wagnerian Queen.

The cast of fairies and Peers of the Realm is led by Auckland bass-baritone, Brian McKay, as the Earl of Mountararat, with Barry Dorking as the Lord Chancellor, Paul Facoory as Earl Tolloller, Sarah Oliver as Iolanthe and Harriet Moir as Phyllis.

The Musical Director is Michael Andrewes and the Director Geoff Smith.

Bookings: Regent Theatre, tel. (03) 477 8597 from 25 July

http://www.gns-dunedin.org.nz

The New Zealand Trio, Ensemble in Residence at The University of Auckland, is delighted to announce their second concert of the 2005 season in the School of Music on 28 July at 8 pm.

The programme will include four works, carefully chosen to produce what should be an evening of satisfying and well-rounded musical enjoyment: Beethoven’s Trio in C Minor, Opus 1, No. 3, the Auckland premiere of New Zealand Composer Gillian Whitehead’s new Piano Trio; Toru Takemitsu’s Between Tides, and the Robert Schumann Trio in D Minor, Opus 63, No.1.

For more information see Pierard joins illustrious list of Song Quest winners on the New Zealand Arts Festival web site.

Update: See also reviews and press releases:

• opera.net.nz review by Sarah Noble
• The New Zealand Herald by William Dart
• Hawkes Bay Today (includes photo)
• Victoria University
• Massey University

Now you can add your own events to the opera.net.nz events calendar. To have a look at our events calendar, just click on the "EVENTS" link in the navigation bar above.

An average of 150 people visit this site every day so why not add your event to our database? You need only to be a registered user. If you aren't already registered, just click on the "Create new account" link at the top right of the page.

Once you've registered (having chosen your username, entered your email address, and been sent your password) you will be able to:

• make announcements;
• add events to our events listing;
• post in our forums;
• comment on other people's posts;
• and vote in our online polls.

To add an event to our events listing:

1. Log in.
2. Click the "create event" link located in the menu at the top right of any page within the opera.net.nz web site.
3. Enter a title (e.g. "Upper Hutt Opera Society - Ring Cycle"), the date of the event, the location of the event, and any details you wish to add (e.g. contact details, tickets, pricing, links etc.)
4. Click "Submit".

Good luck!

Gisborne Theatre Arts Inc will produce The Magic Flute in April. The musical director and co-director is Gavin Maclean and the cast will be largely a showcase of local talent from the Gisborne region: Catherine Macdonald, Claire Egan, Roger Wilson, Mike MacLeod, Richard Davis, Gill Fraser.

I've added another new section to this site which allows you to post announcements, or requests for help. You only need to be a registered user. If you aren't already registered, just click on the "Create new account" link at the top right of the page.

Once you're registered (and have chosen your username, and been sent your password) you will be able to post new forum topics, comment on other people's posts, or vote in our online polls.

People are already using the forums (e.g. announcing some upcoming Sirius Opera performances, or trying to find orchestral accompaniments for Porgy and Bess). Why not give it a go?

To post in a forum:

1. Log in.
2. Click the "create topic" link located in the menu at the top right of any page within the opera.net.nz web site.
3. Enter a title, and body text for your post, and choose a forum ("Help Wanted", "Announcements" etc.).
4. Click "Submit".

Your post will appear on the home page, and in the forums.

Good luck!

I've added a new section to this site which allows you to quickly read newsfeeds from other opera related blogs. To see what's new, just click the newsfeeds link either in the navigation bar, or in the right hand menu. The honour of being the first newsfeed aggregated by the New Zealand Opera Society site goes to Sarah Noble's blog Prima la musica, poi le parole. Sarah clearly cares about the plight of opera in New Zealand and I've invited her to contribute directly to the New Zealand Opera Society website. Here's hoping!

If you know of any other opera related "blogs" out there, drop me an email and I'll add your suggestions to the newsfeeds list.

How many of you are users of del.icio.us? del.icio.us is a social bookmarks manager. It allows you to easily add sites you like to your personal collection of links, to categorize those sites with keywords, and to share your collection with other users. A del.icio.us account is free.

I came across a list of opera links today for a del.icio.us user named "Janus", including:

• Historic Opera: early operatic images, postcards, etc.
• Rare Opera Recordings: "The collection of live opera recordings you will find on this site is the fruit of over twenty years devoted to collecting such performances"

Janus' full list of opera links is here. All the del.icio.us users' opera links are here.

By now I expect that news of the BBC's controversial screening of Jerry Springer The Opera has reached New Zealand's shores. Here is my account of the controversy, direct from my living room in North London.

BBC2. Saturday night at 10pm. It's after the watershed but I've never seen so many disclaimers and warnings. Press reports filter in of hundreds of Christian protesters rallying outside BBC buildings. On the other hand I have friends who have seen the show live, survived, and even enjoyed it. What was I in for? I comforted myself with a glass or two of Frascati and a nod to H.G. Wells' "Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo". Would I wish I had written it myself?