KEY POINTS:
Aidan Lang, NBR New Zealand Opera's general director, is clearly taken with the company's 2008 season, which was announced last night.
This is the first season he can truly count as his own. "One step along a three- or four-year path," as he puts it.
If May's La Boheme is a mite tried and true for some tastes, "we've run out of the top 10, apart from La Boheme", he explains.
It is a new production, directed by Australian Patrick Nolan. Australian soprano Antoinette Halloran plays Mimi and Texan tenor Jesus Garcia is Rodolfo.
Kiwi Robert Tucker returns to play Schaunard and Lexus runner-up Wade Kernot is Colline.
And, with a major American house showing interest in Lindy Hume's recent Lucia di Lammermoor, La Boheme may also prove a marketable commodity offshore.
Suitcases will be packed next winter with a six-week touring season of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel running from Kerikeri to Invercargill. Directed by Michael Hurst, "just the man to find the darker side of the opera", Lang ponders the problems of finding a Wagnerian soprano who looks six.
Anna Pierard as Hansel and Ana James as Gretel are well past the toddler stage, which should put them in good stead when it comes to coping with Helen Medlyn's villainous witch.
The good news here is that Takapuna will have two performances, along with an extra date in Manukau.
It seems 2008 is a definite step forward for NBR New Zealand Opera, although it is distressingly yet another year without showcasing a New Zealand composer.
]Lang says there is something in the pipeline, probably for 2010.
He talks about context, box office, workshopping and scale, not to mention the need to keep the work going through the festival circuit, but it all seems a long, long time away.
