By:

• Christopher Blake

Duration:

1h 30' 00"

Instrumentation:

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

Contents:

two acts

Availability

• This work has a score and a recording

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.

Text Note:

Libretto by Stuart Hoar

Commissioned:

Commissioned by Mercury Theatre, Auckland

Difficulty:

Advanced

Influences

• History - NZ
• Race Relations
• Migration

Performance History

	11 Mar 1994	Performed by W Dixon, J Wollerman, I Enari, R Howell, G Harris, Wellington City Opera Chorus, Wellington Regional Orchestra (now Vector Welllington Orchestra) cond. Patrick Thomas, dir. James Beaumont
		Vector Wellington Orchestra