Alice Sip, co-founder of National Youth Opera Aotearoa. Photo: Woman's Day
It's no surprise the country's new national youth opera training programme is making its debut in Napier.
The city, home to the Prima Volta Trust, which has been fostering budding opera singers in Hawke's Bay since 2014, will host the inaugural public performance by the National Youth Opera Aotearoa this weekend with two concert performances of Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck.
Alice Sip, co-founder with Anna Pierard from the Prima Volta Trust, says the new organisation builds on the success of Prima Volta in bringing on young operatic talent, but extends a reach beyond Hawke's Bay to all of New Zealand.
Sip, who is also a viola player, spoke to RNZ Concert host Bryan Crump about the National Youth Opera Aotearoa, along with her decision to return to New Zealand (bringing a Minnesota farmer with her) and her brush with deafness, when the extreme low barometric pressure of Cyclone Gabriel ruptured an ear drum.
National Youth Opera Aotearoa will perform two concert-only productions of Hansel and Gretel in Napier's Municipal Theatre on Saturday 31 January.
A fully-staged production of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro will take place in August.
