NZSO Celebrates Puccini’s Opera Hits And A Kiwi World Premiere

Two of Australasia’s finest vocalists join with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in October to celebrate some of the most iconic music ever written for opera.

New Zealand soprano Eliza Boom, who won Australia’s prestigious Bel Canto Award this month, and acclaimed Australian tenor Paul O’Neill will perform a selection of opera master Puccini’s best known and loved arias. The Puccini hit parade includes arias and scenes from La Bohème, Madame Butterfly, Tosca, Gianni Schicchi and Turandot.

With the NZSO led by renowned Venezuelan-born Spanish conductor José Luis Gómez, the evening also features two engrossing opera instrumental masterpieces: Verdi’s Overture from La Forza del Destino and Mascagni’s Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana.

If that’s not exciting enough, Arias will open with the world premiere of esteemed New Zealand composer Ross Harris’ Concerto for Orchestra.

“While Concerto for Orchestra is not a symphony, and it certainly isn’t Mahler – his definition of a symphony as ‘It must be like world. It must contain everything.’ is somewhat appropriate for this wide-ranging work,” says Harris.

Since coming runner up in the 2018 Lexus Song Quest, Boom has become one of New Zealand’s most promising young opera singers. Based since 2020 with Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Munich's state opera company, she’s performed in a variety of productions, which this year has included Cosi fan tutte, Das Rheingold, Hänsel und Gretel and Nixon in China.

O’Neill over the past decade has forged an international career as a sought-after tenor in both ensemble and leading roles, ranging from Der Rosenkavalier to La Traviata. O’Neill knows his Puccini, which in February year included a sumptuous outdoor performance of Puccini arias with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Maestro Gómez, Music Director of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, is equally at home in operatic repertoire, having led performances of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, La Bohème at the Frankfurt Opera, Rossini’s La Cenerentola at Stuttgart Opera, and La Forza del Destino at Tokyo’s New National Theatre.

Harris is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading composers. The Arts Laureate and QSM recipient has written more than 200 compositions, including opera, symphonic, chamber, klezmer and electronic music. He has been a finalist in the prestigious SOUNZ Contemporary Award more times than any other New Zealand composer and has won the award four times.

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