Presented for the Art Deco Festival, Festival Opera proudly presents W A Mozart’s masterpiece, The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte). Sung in German with English dialogues and accompanied by a live orchestra. Presented by Festival Opera – 14,16,18 and 20 February 2023 at the Napier Municipal Theatre.

Kieran makes his first return to NZ in three years to play Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute for Festival Opera in beautiful Napier, Hawke’s Bay. Joined by a strong cast of established singers and up-and-coming talent, this entertaining and energetic show is not to be missed!

One year on from the original planned season, we can finally step into the fairy-tale world of Mozart’s triumphant last opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte). It’s crammed full of entertaining characters who are motivated by passion or by hate, but all in search of the ultimate truth.

Danger, magic, tests of integrity, and actions both honourable and foul sweep us up into an enchanting tale where nothing is quite as it seems. This celebrated opera is widely believed to be one of the most magically heart-stopping compositions ever written, featuring many recognisable melodies that have stood the test of time. In our 2023 season, the work is performed by Aotearoa’s finest operatic talent.

Principal Stage Director John Wilkie and Conductor José Aparicio will lead an outstanding cast headlined by Aotearoa’s most promising young tenor, NZ Aria Winner, Lexus Song Quest Finalist and Project Prima Volta graduate, Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono, who takes the role of Tamino. He shares the stage with many other PPV graduates, and established professionals including Emma Pearson who debuts with Festival Opera performing the role of Pamina, Baritone Kieran Rayner who returns to Festival Opera to sing Papageno and Mezzo-Soprano Kirstin Darragh, also in her debut with Festival Opera, singing the role of Third Lady.

The fully staged opera will also feature the Festival Opera Junior Chorus and PPV Senior members.

Project Prima Volta’s participation in The Magic Flute is made possible through the generous support of the Dame Malvina Major Foundation.

Presented for the Art Deco Festival, Festival Opera proudly presents W A Mozart’s masterpiece, The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte). Sung in German with English dialogues and accompanied by a live orchestra. Presented by Festival Opera – 14,16,18 and 20 February 2023 at the Napier Municipal Theatre.

Kieran makes his first return to NZ in three years to play Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute for Festival Opera in beautiful Napier, Hawke’s Bay. Joined by a strong cast of established singers and up-and-coming talent, this entertaining and energetic show is not to be missed!

One year on from the original planned season, we can finally step into the fairy-tale world of Mozart’s triumphant last opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte). It’s crammed full of entertaining characters who are motivated by passion or by hate, but all in search of the ultimate truth.

Danger, magic, tests of integrity, and actions both honourable and foul sweep us up into an enchanting tale where nothing is quite as it seems. This celebrated opera is widely believed to be one of the most magically heart-stopping compositions ever written, featuring many recognisable melodies that have stood the test of time. In our 2023 season, the work is performed by Aotearoa’s finest operatic talent.

Principal Stage Director John Wilkie and Conductor José Aparicio will lead an outstanding cast headlined by Aotearoa’s most promising young tenor, NZ Aria Winner, Lexus Song Quest Finalist and Project Prima Volta graduate, Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono, who takes the role of Tamino. He shares the stage with many other PPV graduates, and established professionals including Emma Pearson who debuts with Festival Opera performing the role of Pamina, Baritone Kieran Rayner who returns to Festival Opera to sing Papageno and Mezzo-Soprano Kirstin Darragh, also in her debut with Festival Opera, singing the role of Third Lady.

The fully staged opera will also feature the Festival Opera Junior Chorus and PPV Senior members.

Project Prima Volta’s participation in The Magic Flute is made possible through the generous support of the Dame Malvina Major Foundation.

Presented for the Art Deco Festival, Festival Opera proudly presents W A Mozart’s masterpiece, The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte). Sung in German with English dialogues and accompanied by a live orchestra. Presented by Festival Opera – 14,16,18 and 20 February 2023 at the Napier Municipal Theatre.

Kieran makes his first return to NZ in three years to play Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute for Festival Opera in beautiful Napier, Hawke’s Bay. Joined by a strong cast of established singers and up-and-coming talent, this entertaining and energetic show is not to be missed!

One year on from the original planned season, we can finally step into the fairy-tale world of Mozart’s triumphant last opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte). It’s crammed full of entertaining characters who are motivated by passion or by hate, but all in search of the ultimate truth.

Danger, magic, tests of integrity, and actions both honourable and foul sweep us up into an enchanting tale where nothing is quite as it seems. This celebrated opera is widely believed to be one of the most magically heart-stopping compositions ever written, featuring many recognisable melodies that have stood the test of time. In our 2023 season, the work is performed by Aotearoa’s finest operatic talent.

Principal Stage Director John Wilkie and Conductor José Aparicio will lead an outstanding cast headlined by Aotearoa’s most promising young tenor, NZ Aria Winner, Lexus Song Quest Finalist and Project Prima Volta graduate, Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono, who takes the role of Tamino. He shares the stage with many other PPV graduates, and established professionals including Emma Pearson who debuts with Festival Opera performing the role of Pamina, Baritone Kieran Rayner who returns to Festival Opera to sing Papageno and Mezzo-Soprano Kirstin Darragh, also in her debut with Festival Opera, singing the role of Third Lady.

The fully staged opera will also feature the Festival Opera Junior Chorus and PPV Senior members.

Project Prima Volta’s participation in The Magic Flute is made possible through the generous support of the Dame Malvina Major Foundation.

Join the critically acclaimed London Oriana Choir under Musical Director Dominic Peckham, The Meridian Sinfonia and an array of international soloists for Bach’s masterpiece as we look toward Eastertide.

Siân Dicker: soprano

Lotte Betts-Dean: mezzo-soprano

Will Wright: tenor

Kieran Rayner: bass

Peter Kirk: Evangelist

As winner of the 2022 Sing Finzi competition, Kieran will perform Finzi’s major song cycle Before and After Summer, a collection of Hardy poems centring around love, loss and reminiscence, as well as an exciting Judith Weir cycle The Voice of Desire. Joined by Krystal Tunnicliffe on the piano, and Sing Finzi runner-up Siân Dicker.

St Laurence’s Church

Siân Dicker soprano
Kieran Rayner baritone
Krystal Tunnicliffe piano

Gerald Finzi  Til Earth outwears
Judith Weir  The Voice of Desire
Edward Rushton  From Katherine Mansfield’s Diary (Premiere)
Gerald Finzi  Before and after Summer

This is the preview showing of an exciting new musical by Sam Peña, One Shoe of Each Colour, which explores identity, growth and change. More details to follow.

Kieran will make his role debut as Escamillo in Carmen, and play Billy Bones in a new opera Captain Blood’s Revenge, for the Norwich Into Opera Festival this summer. More details to follow.

Kieran will make his role debut as Escamillo in Carmen, and play Billy Bones in a new opera Captain Blood’s Revenge, for the Norwich Into Opera Festival this summer. More details to follow.

Kieran will make his role debut as Escamillo in Carmen, and play Billy Bones in a new opera Captain Blood’s Revenge, for the Norwich Into Opera Festival this summer. More details to follow.

Kieran will make his role debut as Escamillo in Carmen, and play Billy Bones in a new opera Captain Blood’s Revenge, for the Norwich Into Opera Festival this summer. More details to follow.

Kieran will make his role debut as Escamillo in Carmen, and play Billy Bones in a new opera Captain Blood’s Revenge, for the Norwich Into Opera Festival this summer. More details to follow.

Kieran will make his role debut as Escamillo in Carmen, and play Billy Bones in a new opera Captain Blood’s Revenge, for the Norwich Into Opera Festival this summer. More details to follow.

Kieran will make his role debut as Escamillo in Carmen, and play Billy Bones in a new opera Captain Blood’s Revenge, for the Norwich Into Opera Festival this summer. More details to follow.

Kieran will make his role debut as Escamillo in Carmen, and play Billy Bones in a new opera Captain Blood’s Revenge, for the Norwich Into Opera Festival this summer. More details to follow.

Kieran will make his role debut as Escamillo in Carmen, and play Billy Bones in a new opera Captain Blood’s Revenge, for the Norwich Into Opera Festival this summer. More details to follow.

Kieran will sing the villainous Sorcerer in Waterperry’s Double Bill of Dido & Aeneas and Acis & Galatea.

Acis and Galatea. The ethereal nymph, Galatea, is in love with a youthful shepherd, Acis. All seems serene, until their love is threatened by the jealousy of the monstrous Polyphemus. Directed by Rebecca Meltzer (Svadba, Hansel and Gretel, Ariel, Mansfield Park) this new production celebrates the beauty of Handel’s music coupled with Waterperry’s natural spaces.

Dido and Aeneas. Tribal Queen Dido struggles to keep power in her court as Prince Aeneas comes to ask for her hand in marriage and an alliance between factions. Treachery and sedition threaten to tear a nation and a marriage asunder. Directed by Guy Withers (Peter and the Wolf, The Diary of One Who Disappeared), this beloved English operatic gem takes a dark turn in a bold new production.

Kieran will sing the villainous Sorcerer in Waterperry’s Double Bill of Dido & Aeneas and Acis & Galatea.

Acis and Galatea. The ethereal nymph, Galatea, is in love with a youthful shepherd, Acis. All seems serene, until their love is threatened by the jealousy of the monstrous Polyphemus. Directed by Rebecca Meltzer (Svadba, Hansel and Gretel, Ariel, Mansfield Park) this new production celebrates the beauty of Handel’s music coupled with Waterperry’s natural spaces.

Dido and Aeneas. Tribal Queen Dido struggles to keep power in her court as Prince Aeneas comes to ask for her hand in marriage and an alliance between factions. Treachery and sedition threaten to tear a nation and a marriage asunder. Directed by Guy Withers (Peter and the Wolf, The Diary of One Who Disappeared), this beloved English operatic gem takes a dark turn in a bold new production.

Kieran will sing the villainous Sorcerer in Waterperry’s Double Bill of Dido & Aeneas and Acis & Galatea.

Acis and Galatea. The ethereal nymph, Galatea, is in love with a youthful shepherd, Acis. All seems serene, until their love is threatened by the jealousy of the monstrous Polyphemus. Directed by Rebecca Meltzer (Svadba, Hansel and Gretel, Ariel, Mansfield Park) this new production celebrates the beauty of Handel’s music coupled with Waterperry’s natural spaces.

Dido and Aeneas. Tribal Queen Dido struggles to keep power in her court as Prince Aeneas comes to ask for her hand in marriage and an alliance between factions. Treachery and sedition threaten to tear a nation and a marriage asunder. Directed by Guy Withers (Peter and the Wolf, The Diary of One Who Disappeared), this beloved English operatic gem takes a dark turn in a bold new production.

Ivor Novello (tenor): Alfred Mitchell
‘Mad’ Frankie Fraser (baritone): Kieran Rayner
Clara Novello Davies, Ivor’s mother (soprano): Olivia Bell
Prison Warder (bass-baritone): Anthony Lloyd

The idol and the thug: well-known Queer Ivor Novello was the most successful composer and matinee idol of the 30s and 40s.  In 1944 he was banged up in Wormwood Scrubs for fiddling his petrol coupons. He shared a cell with a homophobe: 20-year-old ‘Mad’ Frankie Fraser, the terror of South London gangland. What could possibly go wrong?  

This almost-true story explores class war, electric shock treatment, the nature of masculinity – and how to rebuild a life you think is in ruins.

Music: Robert Ely
Words: Peter Scott-Presland
Director: Emily Beech
Music Director: Joe Tobin
Repetiteur: Jack Campbell
Lighting Design: John Brand

Ivor Novello (tenor): Alfred Mitchell
‘Mad’ Frankie Fraser (baritone): Kieran Rayner
Clara Novello Davies, Ivor’s mother (soprano): Olivia Bell
Prison Warder (bass-baritone): Anthony Lloyd

The idol and the thug: well-known Queer Ivor Novello was the most successful composer and matinee idol of the 30s and 40s.  In 1944 he was banged up in Wormwood Scrubs for fiddling his petrol coupons. He shared a cell with a homophobe: 20-year-old ‘Mad’ Frankie Fraser, the terror of South London gangland. What could possibly go wrong?  

This almost-true story explores class war, electric shock treatment, the nature of masculinity – and how to rebuild a life you think is in ruins.

Music: Robert Ely
Words: Peter Scott-Presland
Director: Emily Beech
Music Director: Joe Tobin
Repetiteur: Jack Campbell
Lighting Design: John Brand

Music: Omar Shahryar
Words: Hannah Kumari
Created by PJ Harris and Hannah Kumari
A work-in-progress performance.

In the shadow of international unrest, the increasingly militant Suffragettes plan an attack which could change the history of Woolwich Arsenal FC forever.

Annie is a football fan, and a Suffragette. Francis is a munitions factory worker, and a father. William is a Scottish immigrant and a professional footballer. When ruthless businessman Henry Norris buys ailing Woolwich Arsenal FC and attempts to displace the club north of the river, the intertwined lives of these three Woolwich residents take a dramatic turn.

Age Rating: All ages, mostly adults.

Content Advisory: to see content advisories for Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival 2023 shows, click here.

Produced by PJ Harris & Hannah Kumari, in association with English National Opera