The Heart of a Great School

Foreword

For ‘The Heart of a Great School’ by Wendy Pettigrew

That former generations of Collegians built and generously endowed the beautiful building we know as ‘the chapel’ speaks volumes about the quiet inspiration legions of Old Boys and now Girls derived from their faith and strength of purpose nurtured therein.

This year of 2012 marks one hundred years since the chapel opened for worship. It is not, as we know, the first Collegiate chapel but replaced the much earlier lovely wooden one that became All Saints Wanganui East and served that community for nigh on another fifty years.

The chapel is indeed the heart of a great school. It is no ordinary building but one that through generations has harboured the hopes of thousands of students who have prayed and worshipped within its walls. It stands as a memorial to the hundreds of boys who, through war, never saw the fulfillment of their young lives and whose names are recorded there for evermore. We all remember that fine hymn ‘Lift up your hearts, we lift them Lord to thee’ to the accompaniment of the now historic grand pipe organ encouraging every boy to lift up his voice in song. (130)

The chapel means so much to all who have passed through the school and who have been instrumental in endowing it so worthily. Twenty five years ago under the direction of old boy architect Bruce Dickson and with fund raising activities chaired by Stuart Veitch the extensions and refurbishments were undertaken and so sensitively was this accomplished that it is today difficult to tell original from new.

And now in 2012 under the careful guidance of Gordon Craig the centenary committee has raised the funds to refurbish the exterior of the chapel and the now priceless stained glass. Yet to do is the completion of the fund raising for the refurbishment and extension of the now 86 year old memorial pipe organ and then we of this generation have passed on to the next and future generations a great building that enshrines the soul of the school.

As the chapel enters its second century we offer our appreciation and thanks to Wendy Pettigrew for writing this book. Her writings, with the able assistance of Collegiate Museum curator Richard Bourne, have ensured an excellent record of a building that truly lies at the heart of a great school.

Yours sincerely

Donald Trott.

A tribute to Captain Bryan Wyness

As the awful news of Bryan’s death spread throughout the country and much further afield, all who knew him were left in a state of shock and disbelief and none more so than the hundreds of student singers, tutors and pianists of the New Zealand Opera School.

Personally I have known and greatly appreciated Bryan for more than 25 years. His and Marion’s support for the Opera School has been graciously and generously given from the time it commenced in 1994. From the outset, they gave financial help and in convoy – usually in sports Jaguars and with other airline friends like Mark and Karylin Brown and Fred and Jean Douglas – would swoop down on Wanganui to attend the students’ public events and add luster and enthusiasm to the occasion and the students.

Bryan’s enthusiasm for opera was such that he organized here in Auckland an evening of fine food, wine and opera for fellow Air New Zealand pilots and their wives and partners and the principal performer on that occasion was Simon O’Neill one of our first attendees at the School now performing in the grand opera houses of the northern hemisphere, but still now making his home here in New Zealand.

When Bryan left Air New Zealand after 39 years of airline service a farewell was organised by Captains’ David Morgan and Fred Douglas, and who but singers from the School were on hand to perform to his great delight.

The last nine years have seen Bryan and Marion every January graciously and wonderfully donating their time to the School, travelling to Wanganui, living in boarding school accommodation, dining and exercising with the students and monitoring their progress and comforting when the stresses were high as they sometimes are.

At all Wanganui Opera Week public events whether in the beautiful Sargeant Art Galley, the Prince Edward Auditorium, the Royal Wanganui Opera House, Bryan was there delighting in the performance and ready with a warm appreciation of each as they left the stage.

Bryan had a great love of the singer’s voice. He recognized and understood the great variety of voices and respected the God-given talent of each no matter whether they might reach the sometimes dazzling heights of Covent Garden, the Met or La Scala or contribute to the joyous life of performance in opera in New Zealand or across the Tasman. To him all were valued, encouraged and admired. He often likened flying to opera with the words ‘to be successful both depend upon peak performance from the whole team with a constant search for perfection and with no replay possible’.

The sympathy of so many of the students, tutors, pianists and staff of the School are sent with loving thoughts to Marion and the family. His parting is all too soon, but it would be unimaginable to think of Bryan old and grey, full of sleep and nodding by the fire. We thank the Almighty Creator for his life and say farewell to man whose like we may never look upon again. We will remember him ‘on wings of song’.

The 2012 New Zealand Opera School

The 2012 and 18th New Zealand Opera School came to a spirited and delightful conclusion in the Royal Wanganui Opera House on the 13th January with all twenty four students performing and excelling before and enthusiastic and capacity audience. Congratulations to each and everyone and in this I include our splendid pianists. It was a great pleasure to have three Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation Trustees and the Foundations Administrator present for the evening and for the pre and post performance festivities. A big thank you to Dame Catherine Tizard for her spirited presentation of achievement certificates and to the Foundation for their wonderful financial and personal support. 

The tutors and pianists have again excelled themselves throughout the nearly two week intensive school. It is very gratifying to see the improvement of all the singers as they give themselves totally into the expert tutoring they receive. 

We are al very proud of them and they have every reason to be proud of themselves. Do have a look at www.operaschool.org.nz 

A special thanks to the admin staff that do a wonderful job in keeping everything running smoothly. Of particular sadness was the occasion to farewell Marion Wyness from the position of Secretary to the School for the past 8 years. We all gathered in the Godwin common room to make a presentation of a piece of beautiful hand blown glass from Wanganui’s Chronicle Glass Blowing Studio accompanied by a signed and inscribed card of appreciation.

WOW again did a splendid job of advertising the School to the community, of running the Sarjeant Gallery concert with a capacity audience and for the all the work behind the scenes they so willingly undertake.

All in all it was a memorable and extremely worthwhile School. Now planning for 2013 is in process.

Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation supports the NZ Opera School

The New Zealand Opera School, based annually during January in Wanganui, is delighted to announce that the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation will be the sponsors for the final Opera School concert Great Moments of Opera 2012, in the Royal Wanganui Opera House.

The School, based at the Wanganui Collegiate School, is now in its 18th year and Dame Kiri announced that her Foundation’s motivation for supporting the School was to show their support for this important live-in school which has to date and will continue into the future to provide a vehicle for young New Zealand singers to develop their skills in the presence of their peers and to experience their own live performances. ‘We see the School’, she said, ‘as an invaluable experience to support our primary aim of identifying and assisting New Zealand singers of recognisable ability to complete advanced classical vocal studies and ultimately develop international careers’.

In welcoming the announcement the Director of the School, Donald Trott, said this is a significant step in the life of the School.

DIRE TIMES IN SICILY

A fine production of Cavalleria Rusticana (set in Sicily) and I Pagliacci  (affectionately known as Cav & Pag) opened in Wellington last Saturday with all artistic and performance aspects firmly in place to the delight of a full house at the St James.

Usually these two works are presented as being quite independent of one another but in this production the creative forces have the action taking place in one village and on the same day. Cav is defined as being in a Sicilian village, Pag in just an Italian village, so why not in the same village and maybe on the same day, with the only downside being the three murders in the same village on one day. However there is/has been a strong Mafia presence in Sicily over the years so I guess that is not so strange.

The revolve set enhances the production and leaves the audience with the opportunity to use imagination, always a nice exercise as one sits there an lets the beautiful, powerful and enduring music roll over you.

Elizabeth Whiting’s great costume designs leave us in no doubt that this opera is in recent times and it looses nothing as the event could be of now just as when the operas were first written and performed. There is nothing to suggest that this could not happen now because not much has changed. John Parkers rocky outcrop and revolve work very well and create the sort of scenes that help unravel the works and enhance the performances. The only thing that would/might question is the height of the stage for the ‘on stage’ play and the difficulty of the cast audience craning their necks to see the performance but for the real audience (us) it is a treat.

Do go and see this work. As I sat there on Saturday night with the wonderful singing from all principals and chorus I felt enormously proud of our New Zealand Opera. Finally the Maestro Oliver von Dohnanyi is a superb conductor and demands and gets the most from the orchestral forces. Well done everyone.

A TRIUMPH AT ST-MATTHEW-IN-THE-CITY

Installation of the beautiful Willis pipe organ in St Matthews, Auckland is well underway. Now, after about one hundred and six years, the organ is in the position Mr Pearson, the architect, intended it to be and the result is VERY impressive. I have heard several stops being played by organist Philip Smith from Auckland's Holy Trinity Cathedral and the sound is superb despite the stops not yet being completely in tune (that is all to come). The case work in Oak and the façade pipes look so majestic. This instrument will provide St Matthews with an organ of great significance and the church and the Willis Organ Company of Liverpool are to be warmly congratulated on what will be another fine asset to the musical life of the church and the community.

A Great Opera Moment

The finale of the 2011 New Zealand Opera School concert in the Royal Wanganui Opera House featured a very fine tenor, Pene Pati. I am sure Pene will go far and you might like to listen now to his performance of Che gelida manina (Your tiny hand is frozen), from Puccini’s great favourite La Bohème. He is accompanied by Mark Dorrell.