Introducing Jonathan Alver

Following Brian Wyness’ untimely death, I took on the role of Executive Chairman of the NZ Opera School and invited long-time associate and friend Jonathan Alver to replace me as Director. Jonathan accepted this role and experienced his first School fully in that role for the 20th Anniversary year and directed a wonderful 20th anniversary celebration entitled Opera on the River. New Zealand Opera School alumni, including Simon O’Neill (’94/’95 and ’96), gave an 800-strong audience a great night of opera arias and lighter works.

Jonathan Alver – Director 

Jonathan Alver has more than twenty five years of experience writing, directing and producing operatic, theatrical and screen work in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Europe and the United States.

After graduating in vocal studies (baritone) at the Royal Northern College of Music, Jonathan turned his attention to directing, with early UK productions including: Tosca, Boris Godunov, Madama Butterfly and Showboat at the London Palladium. In the late 90’s Jonathan became General Director of Opera New Zealand (subsequently NBR NZ Opera), directing Faust, Il Trovatore, Lucia di Lammermoor, Gianni Schicchi, The Spanish Hour, Macbeth, La Boheme, Falstaff and Aida. Lucia and Macbeth were subsequently sold to Los Angeles Opera and Minnesota Opera respectively, with Jonathan invited to the US to direct those productions. 

In 2002, Jonathan moved away from opera to form the theatrical production company Volcanic Island. Productions included: a New Zealand tours of Mum’s The Word and Then Comes Love, a UK tour of Being Victor Borge, and Jailhouse Rock - The Musical at the Piccadilly Theatre in London’s West End.

In early 2007, after 20 years in opera and stage production, Jonathan returned to New Zealand to concentrate on screen production. He became a director on Shortland Street and Go Girls, with over 120 hours of screen time under his belt.  

From 2012, Jonathan has returned his focus to the stage, becoming the Artistic Director of the National Youth Theatre Company with productions of Joseph, Pinocchio and Grease, and becoming Director of the NZ Opera School. Other recent projects include: director for Annabel Langbein Live at the Frankfurt Bookfair, joint creative director of the Wynyard Christmas Quarter, and producing and directing three productions for the 2013 Auckland Arts Festival. He also has a number of film treatments and screenplays in development.

DONALD TROTT - A PROFILE

First published in the Wanganui Collegiate School periodical 'The Bulletin' in June 2012.

The years beyond the halls of St Georges and Wanganui Collegiate were marked by memories and indeed the inspiration of School life from some fine headmasters and teachers who lived for their students and were passionate about the schools and all they stood for. Having set a possible career path in management several years of study were required to come to terms with the challenges of all that word implied.

Following a two year stint with the Shell Oil Company in Wellington’s NZ  head office I applied for and was accepted into a position as trainee manager in a fast growing Wanganui based finance company, the Western Building Society offering excellent plans of compulsory savings and entitlement to apply for home loans. Great institutions of the time and the sort we could well do with now had most of them not gone head-long into becoming banks only to swallowed up by larger and more powerful banks to be swallowed up by yet larger and more powerful banks. I am sure you get the picture.

This was a marvellous opportunity for a young trainee manager and an eventual career that spanned nearly 22 years in the organisation. Back then careers were made and sometimes carried out in the one organisation.

My out of office activities included a couple of years with Wanganui Cricket (I was no good at cricket at school and nothing improved later so gave up to become just a spectator) singing, choral work, considerable involvement in St Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Wanganui as an Elder, lay preacher following three years correspondence study with the Knox Theological Hall in Dunedin, Chairman and Counsellor for Birthright Wanganui, Chairman and Trustee of the Margaret Watt Orphanage, Captain for thirteen years of the First Wanganui Company of the Boys’ Brigade which led to my selection to lead 25 boys from around New Zealand on a four and a half month journey by air, ship and overland around the world to attend a major anniversary of the founding of the Brigade in Scotland. Things like this probably do not happen today but this was an epic journey and a marvellous, unforgettable experience.

Ranging over the entire country in my ultimate capacity of sales manger was a challenging and even inspiring time. Thus cities from Invercargill to Auckland were my regular ‘stamping grounds’ for periods, in the case of Christchurch for up to 2 years. There was a lot of flying around the country and on one occasion it nearly all ended when the private plane in which we were flying had an engine failure and with smoke billowing from under the controls we came down through the thickest fog I have ever seen to crash on the top of a small hill 40kms south of Hamilton. The plane burst into flames and we just escaped with our lives.

I followed this a year later with a near disaster in the racing yacht Quicksilver returning from Fiji when a huge storm dealt us a rogue wave that turned the yacht upside down and, having snapped his lifeline, swept away the helmsman. I have always been grateful for the strength and construction of the Sparkman and Stephens yachts and I am sure this applied to the lost helmsman whom we finally found and rescued about three quarters of an hour later.

By 1977 following three approaches from the Managing Director of the Northern Building Society in Auckland with the promise that if I accepted I would be able to sing opera with the Auckland based company I finally relented and moved to the ‘big smoke’ to join the head office staff as Development Manager. Apart from my work the only additional requirement was, at special finance company conference functions, came the ‘order’ at a certain time in the evening ‘Trott, sing!’

Thus began what has now been thirty four years in Auckland a city I now regard very much as home but I have never lost my interest in or affection for Wanganui, a unique and much under-valued city by those who do not know this historic and culturally vibrant place.

Apart from co-owing a yacht and spending as much time on her as opera rehearsal and performance would allow, much of the spare time and some work time was spent touring the opera productions to towns and cities throughout the North Island. I was appointed chairman of the opera company and combined this with numerous roles in a variety of operas as diverse as The Magic Flute to The Bartered Bride.

During the latter part of the eighties the Aotea Centre was being built and to my mind we needed a new trust and trustees to start a new company to be the resident fully professional opera company in the new venue. This began several years of formation of the new company and the selection of a group of what turned out to be very fine trustees.

More mergers, with Northern merging with the Canterbury Building Society to become the United Building Society and then with the granting of a license from government, becoming the United Bank. My role here was now the National Sponsorship Manager and with an excellent budget much of which was used to position United firmly in the arts sector of the country with, I might say, some rewarding results.

In the late eighties the grand Aotea Centre was taking shape and to me it seemed that to facilitate this new and expensive auditorium we needed a new opera company and a new trust to run it. With the community rallying to raise funds the opera joined in and for three successive operas we donated all the profits to the venture.

It took many months to arrange a new trust deed and a trust of prominent citizens to spearhead the new venture. I was elected chairman and with no money other than the amounts we each personally contributed we went ahead in faith. The first ever opera in the Centre occurred three months after the opening in 1990 and was a great success. The merger with Mercury Opera and appointment of the first General Director occurred at the end of 1991 and added further impetus to the new company. The standard of productions improved greatly and we were making a significant contribution to the cultural life of Auckland.

It was never easy financially but with the support of the QE 11 Arts Council (now Creative New Zealand) and some excellent corporate sponsors such as the ANZ Bank we continued through the years to present some great opera works. In the latter part of the 90’s two of our productions were sold to opera companies in the United States.

Then in 1999 we commenced negotiations with the National Opera of Wellington and Canterbury Opera with a view to there being one major company in New Zealand. The deal was achieved in 2000, but with Canterbury Opera abstaining.

I stepped down from the chairmanship in 1994 and was replaced by Dr Robin Congreve. This enabled me to concentrate on the establishment of the New Zealand Opera School but remained a director of the company, a position I still hold today. The School would bring an international tutor from overseas to be supplemented by other tutors who have had an international career in opera performance to tutor our young aspiring singers.

Wanganui and the Wanganui Collegiate School was the perfect place to position such a school and after 18 years it only gets better. A city well placed geographically and a facility at Collegiate that would in my opinion be without peer. We have greatly enjoyed and been enriched by being located in such beautiful surroundings with facilities that work so well for the opera school. In recent times the support of the WCS Director of Music, Nicholas Grigsby has been an added bonus. The local ANZ Bank granted me an overdraft facility to start the school. The manager looked askance when I advised him why I wanted the OD, but he granted it. It has never been used.

The Dom Post described the school as a two week ‘boot camp’ and indeed such a live-in school is very focused and hard work but it has proven to be the spring board for a number of young aspiring New Zealand opera singers who are now making their way in the demanding and tough world of opera performance. The support we receive from the citizens of Wanganui and from afar, the funding granted by CNZ and other private generous benefactors and the support of Wanganui Opera Week (WOW), our support committee ‘on the ground’, is a testimony to cooperation and working together for the good of the art form of opera.

I am proud of the Opera School with its motto ‘Nihil Tumultus Tantum Opera’ (minimum fuss, maximum work) and equally proud to be able to introduce singers from throughout New Zealand to the excellence of our 158 year old Wanganui Collegiate School with its heritage and tradition. To hear the trained voices of 24 young singers in our beautiful chapel packed with visitors and backed by the Collegiate’s fine pipe organ uplifted in ‘Jerusalem’ and other great works is unforgettable.

My life is, daily at the opera office with a myriad of duties not least of which is raising much needed funds for our national company and planning for the 2013 NZ Opera School at Wanganui Collegiate to which I hope to arrive in one of my classic British cars.

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.