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David Farquhar  

A Unicorn For Christmas

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

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Nigel Keay  

At the Hawk's Well

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

Score Sample
  • 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)

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Christopher Blake  

Bitter Calm

Duration: 1h 30' 00" Year: 1993
opera in two acts for soloists, chorus and orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    2sop,1ten,2bari,SATB chorus and orchestra: (2)22(2)2(2); 2220; 2perc,timp,2keyb; strs.
  • Programme Note

    Bitter Calm is a full length opera for five principals, chorus and orchestra in two acts. It is based on an incident at Motuarohia Island in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand in the 1840s. It is a drama of human passions in the contexts of land alienation and tensions between Maori and new settlers. Premiered at the New Zealand International Festival for the Arts in 1994 and filmed for television.

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David Farquhar  

Enchanted Island

Duration: 1h 40' 00" Year: 1997
an opera in three acts based on Shakespeare's "The Tempest"

Score Sample
  • Instrumentation
    3 sopranos; 2 mezzos; 4 tenors; 4 baritones; 1 bass; chorus Orchestra: 2121; 2100; 2 percussion; keyboards; strings
  • Programme Note

    The Tempest is Shakespeare’s most musical play; as Caliban says “…the isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs….”. Its musical demands include many songs and many magic effects, storms and a celestial masque.

    Strangely, while many composers (including myself!) have written incidental music for the play, there have been very few operatic adaptations. Yet the fable contains all the operatic ingredients of romance, intrigue and comedy with lots of magic thrown in – is the happy ending a drawback!? There is also an important theme of freedom present, as the ‘tangata whenua’ of the island, Caliban and Ariel, struggle to get free from their slavery to Prospero. They finally succeed, and Prospero himself in the Epilogue asks the audience to “set him free” to leave magic and the stage, just as Shakespeare is also signalling his retirement from play-writing.

    My adaptation of Shakespeare has reduced his text to about a quarter of the original, and five acts to three.

    Act 1 starts with the storm, presents Prospero’s story so far and his relationships to Miranda, Ariel and Caliban, and ends with Ferdinand’s arrival and his falling in love with Miranda.
    Act 2 is in five symmetrical scenes – courtiers, “comics”, lovers, “comics”, courtiers -, and presents the intrigues aimed at killing King Alonso and Prospero, but thwarted by Ariel.
    Act 3 provides more magic ( Prospero’s masque of spirit godesses, celebrating the lovers’ betrothal), and leads to the denouement, where Prospero assembles everyone, forgives the would-be murderers, and announces the departure of all the the visitors to celebrate Miranda and Ferdinand’s wedding in Naples.
    The Epilogue (originally for Prospero alone), is adapted as a vaudeville finale for the entire cast, ending with the everyone adding clapping to their singing, and inviting the audience to join in.

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John Rimmer  

Galileo

Duration: 1h 30' 00" Year: 1998
a chamber opera using for 6 singers, small chorus and 8 players, also using electroacoustic music and DVD of visuals

Score Sample
Video Sample
  • Instrumentation
    Television newsreader (spoken voice), Nobelman (baritone), Castelli (tenor), Galileo (baritone), Boy/Angel (mezzo soprano), Three Priests (tenor/baritones), Heretic (baritone), Christina (soprano), Military Man (baritone), Sea Captain (baritone), Troubadour (mezzo soprano), Cardinal Bellarmino (tenor), Pope Urban VIII (bass baritone), Pope John Paul II (baritone), small chorus of townspeople; flute doubling piccolo, oboe, clarinet doubling bass clarinet, horn, piano, percussion, violin and cello. Electroacoustic music played through at least eight loudspeakers. DVD of visuals.
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Dorothy Buchanan  

Greenleaf

Duration: 43' 00" Year: 1984
opera for 8 singers and 5 players

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Dorothy Buchanan  

It Began with a Pony

Duration: 41' 00" Year: 2003
a salon opera in one act

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Ross Carey  

Kocho

Duration: 1h 15' 00" Year: 1991
chamber opera in two acts

  • Instrumentation
    soprano, tenor, choir (3 sopranos), flute, oboe/cor anglais, clarinet, bassoon, horn, strings, piano solo
  • Programme Note

    Based on the Noh drama Kocho (“Butterfly”), this chamber opera was written as part of my composition folio for my Honours year of study at Victoria University of Wellington. Although at this particular time I had never heard or seen a Noh drama, I was captivated by this text which I had found in the university library, and decided to make my own setting. This particular drama belongs to the genre of “Spirit Pieces” where the chief motivation is the desire for Nirvana promised by Buddha. In Kocho, the spirit of the butterfly is denied the bliss of Nirvana for a specific reason – her desire for the companionship of the plum blossom that blooms before her time. She tells her story to a travelling monk, asking him to pray for her. In the second act, the butterfly dances joyfully amongst the plum blossoms, her wish fulfilled at last.

    The musical language I have used is a mixture of freely written tonal passages with strong doses of modal (often rather Asian sounding, although not based on any particular system) and minor harmonies, as well as minimalist elements. The choir sings mainly in unison, and in contrast to a traditional Noh choir is made up entirely of women’s voices. On occasion the pianist takes on a more soloistic role, as does the leader of the orchestra. Presented in an unstaged performance at Victoria University of Wellington, in November 1991.

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Matthew Davidson  

Love or Money

Duration: 1h 15' 00" Year: 2010
a Singspiel in one act and thirteen scenes

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Gillian Whitehead  

Outrageous Fortune

Duration: 1h 58' 00" Year: 1998
a chamber opera in two acts

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