6 minute read
A night at the OPERA
IT’S A VERY KIWI THING.
We see something that needs sorting, a gap that needs filling, a problem that needs solving - and we do it. Maybe it’s because we’re at the bottom of the world and know that no one’s going to do it for us, maybe it’s because we’ve always had a can-do attitude, but whatever it is it’s fair to say that from inventing the jet boat and jandals to universal suffrage and climbing Everest, Kiwis have been getting all sorts of stuff sorted for generations.
And if you want a great example of that then look no further than the Aotearoa New Zealand Opera School in Whanganui. Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2024, the School is the brainchild of Donald Trott, who as a young man travelled the length and breadth of New Zealand to find tutors that could help him navigate the technicalities and demands of becoming a world class opera singer. Donald knew that the intensive tutoring style students received in international conservatoires was the key to giving young opera singers the very best opportunity for success, but no one in this country was offering that here. And so, like a good Kiwi, he decided to do something about it - and open an opera school.
Despite living for many years in Auckland and Wellington, Donald knew the perfect place to play home to his vision. “I was born and educated in Whanganui,” he says, “and I knew the people and the place and I knew how supportive it would be. I had also done some research and was very aware of the Wexford Opera Festival that had been started in Ireland in 1951.
The Wexford Festival helped transform a ‘compromised community with a beautiful Opera House and a run-down river port’ into a resilient, vibrant community and I could see similarities with Whanganui.”
The dream was to create a place where international tutors and students could benefit from partnerships with the historic Royal Whanganui Opera House, the Whanganui River (awa), local iwi and the majestic Whanganui Collegiate School. It seemed a perfect fit, and with the encouragement of his long-time coach and accompanist Frances Wilson, who introduced the possibility of world famous soprano Virginia Zeani coming to teach, the scene was set. He approached venues, sounded out supporters and - with a due sense of trepidation - went to the bank to seek finance for an opera school.
“I was shown into an office to meet the manager seated behind a very large desk,” Donald says, “and when I told him what I wanted to do, there was a very long pause! I expect he didn’t get that kind of enquiry very often.”
Nevertheless an overdraft facility was granted and the Aotearoa New Zealand Opera School was born. Today it continues to reside each January on the campus of the Whanganui Collegiate School, one of New Zealand’s oldest residential colleges, and continues to go from strength to strength. And the overdraft facility has never been used!
“The School now has an international standing and reputation,” says Donald. “It offers two weeks of intensive residential training to New Zealand students from leading professional international tutors and New Zealand based musicians, stage directors and language coaches, and from the outset, established international opera singers have taught at the School – it’s been overwhelming to see how many internationally renowned performers have come here, and how many of them have come back multiple times.”
School alumni include renowned international tenor Pene Pati, soprano Amina Edris, Simon O’Neill, Madeleine Pierard, Phillip Rhodes, Samson Setu, Bianca Andrew, Amitai Pati and Stephen Diaz, but at its heart, everything about the School is still focused on the training of young New Zealanders. The school’s motto “Nihil tumultus, tantum opera” translates as ‘Minimum fuss, maximum work’, and that is the nature of the challenging opportunity it offers young singers.
One of the greatest opportunities the School offers the rest of us is Whanganui Opera Week, when a programme of six events in venues around the city entertain opera loving enthusiasts from all over New Zealand. From the spectacular Opera House to the Museum, to partnerships with local iwi from Pūtiki marae and up close and personal performances in restaurants and cafés, this is taking young up and coming singers to an audience and taking opera to the people. The 30th anniversary of Whanganui Opera Week will welcome 21 of New Zealand’s brightest young opera singers from the 7th to 21st January and it is not to be missed!
“This school was the dream for Whanganui,” says Donald. “Some of it has been achieved, and now it is time for the dream to be completed. The people of Whanganui have been immensely supportive, as I knew they would be, and for the upcoming Opera Week we have secured some of the world’s best, including Della Jones, Welsh mezzo-soprano and coach at the English National Opera Studio, Glenn Winslade, Opera Australia’s highly regarded technical voice coach from Opera, Sharolyn Kimmorley, world renowned repetiteur and vocal coach and Japanese born American soprano Nikki Li Hartliep who has performed and taught at conservatoires around the world, specifically in New York, San Francisco and Florida. The School is a team effort and I’m grateful to everyone who has walked alongside me over the last 30 years.”
The School is proudly supported by the Freemasons Foundation, Creative New Zealand, Whanganui & Partners and many private individuals among others - and Air Chathams is also proud to be a part of the festivities, so mark it in your calendar and start planning your trip today - it’s going to be a truly memorable birthday party!
