World Premiere

A powerful story, spine-tingling staging and our finest operatic talent all come together in this new New Zealand opera from acclaimed composer Jenny McLeod.

From one of the most turbulent times in our country’s history came this tragic true story of Māori chief Hōhepa Te Umuroa.

In a production of sweeping scale, we traveled from the fertile earth of the Hutt Valley and the barren brutality of Tasmania’s Maria Island penal colony to the Whanganui River in the 1980s. This was the sacred journey to reunite Hōhepa Te Umuroa with the soil of his homeland.

This groundbreaking new work featured an outstanding 17-strong cast of New Zealand’s most renowned opera singers, including Phillip Rhodes, Jonathan Lemalu, Martin Snell and Jenny Wollerman. Hōhepa was accompanied by players from the Vector Wellington Orchestra.

The production represented more than a decade of extensive research by composer Jenny McLeod and was based on recorded, personal and oral histories. The result was a warm and at times humorous opera; epic yet deeply human at heart.

Composer  Jenny McLeod

Conductor  Marc Taddei

Director  Sara Brodie

With  Phillip Rhodes, Jenny Wollerman, Nicky Spence, Jonathan Lemalu, Deborah Wai Kapohe, Rawiri Paratene, Martin Snell, Eddie Muliaumaseali’i

SUNG IN ENGLISH AND MĀORI