New Zealand Opera announced its 2018 season this week, with a big emphasis on giving lead roles to New Zealand singers. NZO’s Executive Director Stuart Maunder talks about bringing back top Kiwi names in operas that cover the range from modern to classic, popular to challenging.

The New Zealand Festival 2018 is going to be an odyssey of epic proportions. Waka Odyssey is the centre piece involving waka from around the Pacific descending on Wellington with much fanfare. Shelagh Magadza talks through the importance of Waka Odyssey, and what else we can expect for next year’s festival.

In every good story there’re always the goodies and the baddies. James Millar is currently playing the evil tortuous villain that is Trunchbull, the school mistress in Matilda. She’s a former Olympic hammer thrower, a cruel and sadistic disciplinarian who throws children around by their pigtails, makes them eat entire cakes on stage and forces them into the hold. And it’s a role James Millar is loving.

A classic Kiwi book has been modernised thanks to playwright and actor Arthur Meek. Erewhon Revisited revamps the famous Samuel Butler satire about life on a back country sheep station. Meek tells the story through a magic lantern show, a new art form for him, accompanied by a score played live by Eva Prowse.

We are a creative nation. No one knows that better than art historian and contemporary-art curator Ngahiraka Mason. The former Indigenous Curator Māori Art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is now based in Hawaii, but she’s in the country to give talks about the role of Colin McCahon in addressing the differences between Maori and Pakeha, and the importance of curating and celebrating contemporary Maori art.

The University of Canterbury’s Classics and Music departments are putting on an operatic drama called The Oresteia Experience.  It’s based on the Greek playwright Aeschylus’ story of murder and revenge in ancient Greece, set to music by Xenakis. The experience begins in the Teece Museum of Classical Antiquities with Head of Classics Patrick O’Sullivan and Mark Menzies from the School of Music setting the scene before top counter tenor Randall Scotting and chorus sing the visceral score.

By day Jian Liu is a busy teacher at the New Zealand School of Music, but by night he’s busy preparing for a packed schedule. The pianist is performing the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Orchestra Wellington and then heads off to China and the United States. He talks about keeping the balance between teaching and performing right and his ideas on playing Grieg for the first time.

The New Zealand Dance Company is touring The Absurdity of Humanity to the regions. Described as “provocative and poetic” by NZDC’s artistic director Shona McCullagh, it will challenge the audience’s perception of humanity through a range of contemporary dance styles.

The functionality and beauty of architecture, and the role of women are being captured in a new photography exhibition curated by the National Association of Women in Construction. Emma Weir has an eye for detail and has overseen the exhibition that is also part of the inaugural Festival of Architecture starting on September 7.

For thirty years Tony Vercoe ran Kiwi-Pacific Records until his retirement in 1989.  When he began there was almost no interest in New Zealand music, but he saw the potential and helped develop the careers of artists like Malvina Major, Kiri te Kanawa and Douglas Lilburn along with folk singers like Peter Cape. Kiwi Pacific was also the first to record Maori and Pacific Island music and performers.  98 year old Tony Vercoe has told the story to his nephew Tony Martin through a series of interviews published by Steele Roberts under the title The Kiwi Pacific Records Story.