2020 has demanded flexibility from us all, none more so than artists. When all the theatres closed in March, I was in the midst of my year of training at the National Opera Studio. However, I was in the fortunate position of being able to fly home to New Zealand to shelter the storm. You know what they say: every cloud has a silver lining. While it was incredibly disappointing to have to cut my time in London so short, I got to spend six months with my family and actually had the opportunity to do some wonderful music making in New Zealand. I had the absolute privilege of singing in Ngū Kīoro… Harikoa Ake - a very special concert with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Simon O'Neill that marked the world's first large scale concert without social distancing since COVID-19. Conducted by Hamish McKeich, it's hard to fully describe what it felt to be back on stage after so long. Simply put, I felt incredibly lucky. The whole concert was live streamed, and I have put a link to the YouTube below. You can find me singing at 19:14 and 1:24:51. One of the other highlights of my time in New Zealand was performing alongside a bunch of incredibly talented friends with the Auckland Opera Studio. The concert was recently streamed on RNZ Concert, and can be listened to here. Another large part of my time in New Zealand went into co-founding Reo Takurua Winterless Opera with Kawiti Waetford and Sophie Sparrow, who were also based in Whangarei at the time. Thanks to an arts grant from Creative New Zealand, we were able to bring intimate concert performances to Whangarei audiences and schools, hold two weekends of intensive masterclasses with Northland singers, and translate opera arias into Te Reo Māori. The music community of Northland responded incredibly well to the project, and it was a privilege to give a little bit back to the community that gave me my first taste of opera. When the time came to leave, I was definitely a bit sad to be leaving this little haven, but this was quickly overshadowed by the wonderful prospect of going back into full time work! I arrived in Munich in early September, and I can say without a doubt that I have fallen in love with the city, and this beautiful opera house. There are 11 singers and 2 pianists on the opera studio programme, all of whom are extremely talented and exceptionally lovely. We are lucky to be receiving some of the best training available, and I can already see the difference it has made in my performance. Unfortunately, the recent rise in Coronavirus cases has meant the opera house is currently closed for performances, but we are still training and working hard. We are hoping that performances will resume in December. I did manage to make my mainstage debut just before we closed, in a new production of Die Vögel by Braunfels! Although it was the one and only performance of the show, we were incredibly grateful to be able to be able to share our work with the (very small) live audience, and everyone who was watching the stream online - which you can still pay to watch here. When we do start back up again, the rest of my season will be busy with 7 different productions and plenty of concerts. The Bayerische Staatsoper has truly impressed me in these two months, and I am so thrilled I get to spend the next two years working here.
Last and not at all least, you can watch me and my brilliant opera studio colleagues in concert on Monday 23rd November at 20:15 CEST, or Tuesday 24th 08:15 NZST. The concert will be broadcast live for free on Staatsoper.tv, or you can pay to watch it on demand a few days after the performance. It's shaping up to be a terrific concert, so don't miss it! I will be singing scenes from Clemenza di Tito and Die Fledermaus. Click here to watch. With all the best wishes for everyone at this challenging time, Eliza x Comments are closed.
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