Operatunity turns 20! Operatunity began in 2001 with just four Auckland venues. “There were more people on stage than in the audience when we started with only 9 people coming to see us and most of them were Sue’s family!” Co-owners and founders, husband and wife Susan Boland and John Cameron never envisaged these humble beginnings would result in today’s company. The exciting thing was that the people who came, came back the next month and brought their friends and this kept happening so the word spread. Word of mouth was and still is our best advertising. Although we are called Operatunity, it is a bit confusing for people as the name does sometimes put people off. We have always said the name is a play on the words opera and tunes and although we did present more classical concerts at the beginning we have never been a company of high brow stuffy concerts. We have always been much more about delivering music with fun and flair rather than the pretentious. We want people to come and enjoy. We started expanding our venues over the next few years, taking baby steps, adding one venue at a time until we had to bite the bullet and start our lower North Island and then our South Island tours, adding many venues at once. Then in 2007 we planned our first music trip to Melbourne to see The Lion King. We photocopied an itinerary, planned a trip and thought maybe 20 people might come. We ended up with 72 people within a week and thought we better stop selling at that point and start to work out what we were actually doing.
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Toll free 0508 266 237 | www.operatunity.co.nz