Tag: Opera

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa at 80: recordings and tributes

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Despite its geographical isolation from the traditional centres of the operatic world, Aotearoa New Zealand has produced a remarkable number of exceptional opera singers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and this tradition shows every sign of continuing. Of all these outstanding ‘southern voices’, the most immediately and internationally recognisable is Dame Kiri te Kanawa, who celebrated her eightieth birthday on Wednesday 6 March 2024. You can access tributes to, and interviews with Kiri te Kanawa via Radio New Zealand, including Playing Favourites with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Happy Birthday, Dame Kiri, Dame Kiri at 80, and Dame Kiri’s 80th birthday, a day of celebration.

Wellington City Libraries hold in their collection many recordings, both on CD and DVD, of performances by Kiri Te Kanawa, including fully staged operas, and song recitals;  this blog will explore a handful of those recordings and other materials. Continue reading “Dame Kiri Te Kanawa at 80: recordings and tributes” →

Red Moon: Inner Visions of Berg’s Wozzeck

Corrina

Saturday 11 November 2023 sees the finale of Orchestra Wellington’s ‘Inner Visions’ season with a concert performance of Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck. This will be the first performance of Berg’s complete work in New Zealand, nearly a full century after its premiere in Berlin in December 1925. Orchestra Wellington and Music Director Marc Taddei will be joined by a constellation of outstanding singers in the principal roles, as well as the Scholar Cantorum of St Mark’s School, and the Tudor Consort.

This blog will explore some of the background to Wozzeck and highlight some of the books and audiovisual materials in the Wellington City Library that will offer still more context for and analysis of Berg’s opera. Whether you are interested in the history of Wozzeck, Berg’s creative process and the structure of the work, atonality, Expressionism, or the early-nineteenth century play Woyzeck that provided Berg with his source and inspiration, there will be something here for you: Roger Parker, Carolyn Abbate, Theodore Adorno, and several other authors have all written perceptively and revealingly about Wozzeck.

Continue reading “Red Moon: Inner Visions of Berg’s Wozzeck” →