New Zealander Phillip Rhodes (Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Kahungunu) “proved to be a safe hand” in his debut role as Giorgio Germont for Opera Australia in Verdi classic, La Traviata. “Listening to his sonorous baritone deployed…
Ashburton-born tenor Simon O’Neill recently won a Grammy for his work on the Los Angeles Philharmonic recording of Mahler’s Symphony No 8, under conductor Gustavo Dudamel, David Skipwith reports for Stuff. The recording received two…
Here is an insane undertaking: a small London-based arts collective, Gafa, run by singers of Samoan heritage, putting on a complete Ring cycle – four vast operas, almost 15 hours of music – in…
In 13 years, New Zealander Alex Reedijk has pulled Scottish Opera back from the brink, turning it into a thriving company that takes risks on stage and serves the community, from the youngest to…
The best of Bernstein, Brahms, Hungarian classical and Wagner’s Ring Cycle are among the classical highlights of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, and Ashburton-born opera singer Simon O’Neill, 47, is one of the must-sees,…
Understudies rarely get the opportunity to have their names in bright lights, but a sequence of mishaps at the UK’s Longborough Festival Opera gave New Zealand-born soprano Claire Egan, 34, a starring role in one…
New Zealand-born tenor Simon O’Neill gave a recent recital at Hertz Hall in Berkeley, California. He was accompanied by fellow New Zealander Terence Dennis on piano. “Both O’Neill and Dennis are much decorated artists…
Melbourne’s CBD is home to seasoned opera singer Auckland-born, Samoan Eddie Muliaumaseali’i, whose new musical comedy Jack of Two Trades received critical acclaim last month. Muliaumaseali’i has been singing in operas, musicals and plays and…
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, who was presented with the 2017 Gramophone Awards Lifetime Achievement Award last week in London, and who has just announced her retirement from public performance, sat down with the Financial…
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, one of opera’s most celebrated stars, has told the BBC she will never sing in public again. Te Kanawa, 73, said she stopped performing a year ago, but had not…
Palmerston North-born baritone Hadleigh Adams has been praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for his “poignant,” “expressive” voice, and “beautiful tone with both flexibility and power.” Adams will present “Classical Broadway,” celebrating the songs…
Auckland soprano Isabella Moore’s recent performance in Puccini’s Suor Angelica at Conservatory Concert Hall in San Francisco is highly praised in online music site, San Francisco Classical Voice. “Moore was the spine-chilling Angelica, her voice…
One word not often associated with Richard Wagner, the 19th-century composer of high romantic opera, is “cool” – yet this is the adjective repeatedly invoked by New Zealander Simon O’Neill, 44, who made his…
When “Lorde and her minimalist pop masterpiece ‘Royals’ gradually conquered the world in 2013, fans and critics alike in the US and Europe – and to a lesser extent in Australia – declared it…
New Zealand-born performer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will perform a series of concerts in Australia later this year. Te Kanawa’s performances in Bendigo and Ballarat could be one of the last chances for people…
The “pin-up boy of Australian opera”, New Zealand grand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes, famous for his portrayal of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, talks with the Advertiser about how he unwinds and where he loves to…
New Zealander Teddy Tahu Rhodes, “the drawcard” of State Opera SA’s recent season of Faust, “brings his powerful voice of dark charm to the role of Mephistopheles, an imposing icon of evil,” Adelaide Now…
New Zealander Darren Pene Pati, “the one with the special tenor voice”, took second prize and the audience prize for male singer at this year’s Operalia, The World’s Opera Competition, held in London. According to…
Operatic baritone New Zealander Teddy Tahu Rhodes has the lead role as the infamous barber in Victorian Opera’s take on Sweeney Todd, Stephen Sondheim’s bloodiest musical. Rhodes, playing Sweeney for the first time, hasn’t watched…
New Zealand Bass-Baritone James Ioelu has won the Victoria League Scholarship in Singing sponsored by the Victoria League in Auckland in association with the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation. “We are absolutely delighted to…
The Prince of Wales presented legendary Kiwi soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa with an honorary doctorate at a ceremony at the Royal College of Music. “It’s a great honour to be given such a title…
Two of the best opera singers from New Zealand and Australia will come together on Anzac Day for a special commemoration of the 100-year anniversary of Gallipoli at the Sydney Opera House…
Fresh from performing the New Zealand national anthem in Chicago for a rare rugby match between the USA Eagles and world-champion All Blacks, operatic trio Sol3 Mio are hoping for many more thumping victories…
Acclaimed Christchurch-born soprano Hayley Westenra, 27, who has mesmerised audiences across continents, appeared with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (WCO) at the Orpheum Theater on 18 and 19 December singing Christmas favourites. Westenra’s music director, Tim…
For most tenors, according to New Zealander Simon O’Neill, performing as Otello “is the Everest” of all roles. He plays the Moorish general for the Houston Grand Opera season. Otello demands a tenor…
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, one of the world’s greatest opera stars, has made an impassioned plea for Britain to stop blocking the flow of young singers into opera houses so that the top quality…
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa “is as busy as ever” recently performing works based on American poet Emily Dickinson’s poems at the Ravinia Festival in Illinois. The Ravinia Festival, which has had a long association with…
As Otello, in Opera Australia’s “appealing revival of Verdi’s masterwork”, New Zealander Simon O’Neill cements his reputation as “one of the world’s top heldentenors, a term usually used to describe the largest…
In an exclusive live session for Britain’s Telegraph, New Zealand operatic trio Sol3 Mio performed their hit Yellow Bird from their self-titled debut album. The song was recorded in London, and was the best-selling album…
Baritone Hadleigh Adams, New Zealand’s first San Francisco Opera Adler Fellowship recipient, talks with the Huffington Post’s cultural critic Sean Martinfield about his latest performance, in American composer Gabriel Kahane’s The Memory Palace, an…
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has returned to Covent Garden after 17 years for performances of Donizetti’s comedy La Fille du Régiment in the role of the Duchess of Crackentorp. Te Kanawa celebrated her 70th birthday…
Christchurch-born operatic baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes, 47, shows Sydney Morning Herald journalist Tim Elliot around the Opera House, which is open 363 days a year – closing only Christmas Day and Good Friday –…
New Zealand-born soprano Katherine Wiles is starring as Donna Elvira in an outback tour of Mozart’s Don Giovanni by Oz Opera, Opera Australia’s touring arm. Wiles said she was excited at embarking on her…
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will perform the British national anthem “God Save the Queen” in the gardens of Buckingham Palace in July to mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation. Te…
New Zealand veteran heldentenor Simon O’Neill plays Siegmund in the Metropolitan Opera season of Wagner’s Die Walküre. However, on the evening of The New York Times review, the first of two performances, “O’Neill’s normally…
Dunedin opera singer Jonathan Lemalu takes the lead role in Cincinnati Opera’s production of Porgy and Bess, which runs through 8 July in Music Hall. During rehearsals, Lemalu tells Cincinnati.com about the character Porgy:…
Dunedin-born opera singer Jonathan Lemalu, 36, tells the Guardian how he learnt to sing in Mandarin for the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts premiere of Three Poems by Mu Xin, which he and the New Zealand…
“Based on a true story spanning nearly 150 years, Hohepa lays bare some of New Zealand’s most painful wounds — and seeks to heal them through music,” Mike Silverman of the Associated Press writes. “The opera,…
One of this year’s New Zealand International Festival of the Arts features will be the New Zealand Opera production, Hohepa, which premieres on 15 March. It tells the tragic tale of Maori chief Hohepa Te…
Christchurch-born baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes (right) performs with Australian David Hobson at the Perth Concert Hall on 29 October as part of their “encore” national tour. During a lunch where the conversation ranged from…
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa performed “a range of songs from the Baroque to Rachmaninoff, accompanied by friend and accompanist, Professor Terence Dennis” in a benefit concert for the Hawaii Opera Theatre in late September….
Christchurch-born soprano Hayley Westenra, 24, talks to the Daily Mail’s Jon Wilde about hiring Victoria Beckham’s minder to deal with stalkers and reaching notes only animals can hear. “Certain animals will prick up their…
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will give a special one-off concert in Ireland’s Ulster Hall as part of the Belfast Festival at Queen’s in October — with one lucky young singer getting the chance to…
New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes will star in an Opera Australia production of South Pacific to open at the Sydney Opera House this month ahead of a nationwide tour. Opera Australia’s artistic director…
“There may be imitators or wannabes, but there is really only one true diva — legendary soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa,” The Jerusalem Post’s David Brinn writes in a profile of the…
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa was one of five artists recognised for their international musical achievements at the Opera News Awards held in New York at the famed Plaza Hotel on 17 April. German tenor…
“Described by some of his more excitable fans as the Brad Pitt of opera, New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes certainly has plenty of stage presence,” Fiona Boxall writes in a lifestyle article for…
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is the new patron of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition following the death of Dame Joan Sutherland last year. Chairman of the jury John Fisher said they…
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa was amongst those present at the annual Christmas night dinner in the baronial Lincoln Center duplex of Sissy and Max Strauss in New York. Each holiday, more than a hundred…
New Zealander Madeleine Pierard, 29, won the 25 Lexus Song Quest and as a result spent four years at London’s Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio, taking up a two-year contract…
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is the perfect antidote for World Cup football fever according to Guardian reviewer Sam Woollaston. “There isn’t much that can distract me from the World Cup. But Dame Kiri managed…
Christchurch-born singer Hayley Westenra, 23, is performing with the College Band of the RAF at Blackburn’s King George’s Hall for the Battle of Britain 7th Anniversary Tour on July 12, “furthering her status as…
In late February, Soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa performed works by Handel, Debussy, Vivaldi and others at Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center for the Performing Arts, her first performance in the state of Florida in…
Soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will be presented with a lifetime achievement award at the 11th annual Classical Brits to be held at the Royal Albert Hall on May 13. Dame Kiri joins a…
Kiri Te Kanawa, who recently gave a recital at Washington, DC’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, also has a speaking role as the Duchess of Krakenthorp in Donizetti’s comedy The Daughter…
Wellington opera director Colin McColl was interviewed by The Scotsman on the eve of the opening night of Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers at Glasgow’s Theatre Royal. Has Scottish Opera lost its marbles…
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