MINI-BUS OPERA

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33487, 19 March 1974, Page 10

MINI-BUS OPERA

Christchurch schoolchildren will be able to see grand opera, scaled down to fit into a minibus and a small stage, when the New Opera Quartet performs at a number of schools in the Christchurch area soon.

The New Opera Quartet are John Bates and Barbara Green, from Wellington, Fay Hadden, from Auckland, and Keith Lewis, from Christchurch. With their musical director and accompanist, Bruce Greenfield, they will tour New Zealand, presenting a programme designed to create “instant intimate opera.” The programme covers highpoints in opera over the last 200 years. Items are drawn from the works of -Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi, Bizet, Johann Strauss, Gershwin, and Gilbert and Sullivan. Minimal properties, costumes, make-up and scenery are used to create the right dramatic atmosphere, and then it is up to the. music and the voices. The first concert of the tour Will be at the Christchurch South Intermediate .School on Monday, March 25. Concerts will be given later next week at the Riccarton High School, Avonside Girls’ High School, Rangiora High School, Kaiapoi High School, and Aranui High School. The New Zealand tour, which will last about five months, is being organised o'y the Music Federation with the support of the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council. Globe Theatre head resigns The honorary director of the Globe Theatre, Dunedin, Rodney Kennedy, has resigned after holding the position for a year. His resignation will take effect from the' end of April j