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David Farquhar  

A Unicorn For Christmas

Duration: 2h 00' 00" Year: 1962
an opera in three acts

Nigel Keay  

At the Hawk's Well

Duration: 55' 00" Year: 1991
opera in one act

  • Instrumentation
    2 sopranos playing percussion; 1 bass playing percussion; Bass; Tenor; Dancer; women's chorus; flute, alto flute, clarinet in A, bass clarinet, bassoon; horn, trombone, bass trombone; timpani, piano; strings (including solo electric violin); Percussion: Javanese drums, bass drum, tamtam and optional Javanese gong, gender, slentem, kempul.
  • Programme Note

    An operatic setting of the dance-play by W.B. Yeats which is also performable as a dramatic cantata in a concert version. This is a one-act work and is ritualistic in nature reflecting Yeats’ modeling of the text on the Japanese Noh play. The music is at times dark and atmospherlc, and the archetypal symbolism and metaphysical suggestion of the text, wlth its archaic language and bleak images, is a rich source of inspiration for this. The musical language is comprehensive with tonality and atonality used in conjunction with each other to express literary ideas. Written for five solo singers with the main roles being a tenor and a bass, and a dancer, the backing ii provided by a 30 or so piece orchestra including piano, solo electric violin, and gamelan instruments.
    (Programme note from composer’s website)

  • Availability

Helen Fisher  

Bone of Contention

Duration: 1h 20' 00" Year: 1993
a dance work for mezzo-soprano and ensemble

Douglas Lilburn  

Dance Sequence for Expo '70

Duration: 11' 00" Year: 1970
for tape (sounds of NZ birdsong)

Dorothy Buchanan  

Miss Brill

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 1998
an opera in one act

Helen Fisher  

Nga Tapuwae o Kupe (The Footprints of Kupe)

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 1992
a bicultural work for school choir, instruments and dance

  • Instrumentation
    choir, percussion, Rarotongan drums, guitars (students), Taonga Puoro (koauau), piano, clarinet in B flat, alto saxophone, horn in F, flute, guitar (advanced performer)
  • Programme Note

    Nga Tapuwae o Kupe is a music drama directed by Rangimoana Taylor. It is based on the story of Kupe’s journey from Hawaiki to Aotearoa and his discovery of various landmarks around Whanganui-a-Tara / the Wellington region.

    While this work maintains a strong Maori theme, with karanga, haka and waiata, as well it weaves in other Pacific and European elements.

    For school choir, instrumentalists, dancers and kapa haka, this work was composed with the financial assistance of a composition grant from Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, was first performed by 140 students from South Wellington Intermediate School in July 1992 for Artsplash, the Wellington Young People’s Festival.

  • Availability

Philip Norman  

Peter Pan

Duration: 1h 27' 00" Year: 1999
music for orchestra for a 3-act ballet

  • Programme Note

    This work was commissioned and premiered by The Royal New Zealand Ballet at the Westpac Trust St James Theatre, Wellington on February 27, 1999.

    Through most of 1998, the commissioned creative team including composer Philip Norman, choreographer Russell Kerr and designer Kristian Fredrikson worked on the adaptation of James M Barrie’s enchanting story. “We ate, slept and dreamt crocodiles, pirates and mermaids.”

  • Availability

Edwin Carr  

Promenade

Duration: 18' 00" Year: 1985
ballet suite for orchestra

Dorothy Buchanan  

The Daughters of the Late Colonel

Duration: 33' 00" Year: 1998
a short opera in one act

Dorothy Buchanan  

The Woman at the Store

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 1997
an opera in one short act for four soloists with piano accompaniment