LANSDOWN NARROPERA WINTER 2021
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO & DER FREISCHÜTZ
June – July – August
June – July – August
SUNDAY, 27TH JUNE 2021, 3PM - 4.30PM
W A MOZART, THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
The Narropera Trio
Tickets: $30.00 Book via email haydn.fenice@gmail.com or (03) 3225512
SATURDAY, 3RD JULY 2021, 3PM - 4.30PM
W A MOZART, THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
The Narropera Trio
Tickets: $30.00 Book via email haydn.fenice@gmail.com or (03) 3225512
SUNDAY, 25TH JULY 2021, 3PM - 4.30PM
CARL MARIA von WEBER, DER FREISCHÜTZ
The Narropera Trio
Tickets: $30.00 Book via email haydn.fenice@gmail.com or (03) 3225512
SATURDAY, 7TH AUGUST 2021, 3PM - 4.30PM
CARL MARIA von WEBER, DER FREISCHÜTZ
The Narropera Trio
Tickets: $30.00 Book via email haydn.fenice@gmail.com or (03) 3225512
For the first time, Narropera will be performed in Winter, in the Golden Room: two performances of Mozart's 'The Marriage of Figaro' and two performances of Weber's 'Der Freischütz'.
The two 'Figaro' performances are immediately prior to the staged performances of the same opera, by the New Zealand Opera, in Christchurch. Narropera performances represent the perfect preparation for staged performances. Moreover, these Narropera performances of 'Figaro' combine music from Mozart's original version of The Marriage of Figaro (1786) with music from Mozart's later revision of the opera (1789), to give the listener a greater breadth of experience with this masterpiece.
The two 'Freischütz' performances repeat performances The Narropera Trio gave of this opera in March 2021. 'Freischütz' is one of the most famous German operas, and from this opera grew German Romantic Opera. Written in 1821 (200 years ago), Freischütz's influence on the development of opera has been immense. With its beautiful music and powerful story, every lover of opera will take delight in discovering this wonderful work.
The NARROPERA TRIO consists of soprano Dorothee Jansen, violinist Cathy Irons and pianist/narrator Haydn Rawstron.
DOROTHEE JANSEN Soprano
Dorothee Jansen was born in Bonn and studied voice at the Cologne and Freiburg Conservatories and then became member of Cologne Opera Studio. She graduated from the latter directly into the ensemble of the Cologne Opera, where Fiordiligi, Pamina, Musetta, and Annina were amongst her first major roles. As a freelance singer, she has sung in opera houses, symphony concert halls, and chamber music halls throughout Europe and Australasia: from the Teatro alla Scala di Milano to the Bayreuth Festival; from the Konzerthaus Vienna to the Concertgebouw Amsterdam; from the Wigmore Hall London to the Sala Paganini Parma. She is also internationally renowned for her interpretations of Schubertlieder. In 2013, Dorothee co-founded The Narropera Trio and the Lansdown Festival.
HAYDN RAWSTRON Continuo & Narration
Haydn Rawstron, Cantabrian, was born in Darfield and educated in Christchurch, New Zealand, first as a chorister in the Christchurch Cathedral Choir and later at Christ's College. As an Oxford undergraduate, he was Christopher Tatton organ scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, taking his degree in musicology, specializing in opera, particularly in the works of Richard Wagner. In 1977, he founded in Europe the agency Haydn Rawstron Limited, and built the worldwide careers of important international opera singers, conductors, and stage directors. He sold his agency in 2009, the same year in which HM The Queen conferred on him membership of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his cultural and heritage work on behalf of New Zealand in Britain. In 2014 the French Government honoured him with Chevalier (knight) de l’ordre des Arts et Lettres for his services to French culture.
CATHY IRONS Violin
Neo-Cantabrian from South Africa. Began violin studies at the age of nine and within several years won prizes at The Natal Eisteddfod, also appearing on national TV and radio. Studied with concertmaster of the Kwa-Zulu Natal Philharmonic Orchestra. An alumna of The University of Natal, B-Mus with distinction in orchestra performance and joined the K-Z Natal Philharmonic, before emigrating to Canterbury. Currently, member of the 1st violin section of the CSO. Founded The Tres Cordes String Trio, which toured nationally for Chamber Music NZ and guested, in 2019, at The Deia International Festival in Mallorca, Spain. Enjoys collaboration with jazz musicians, artists, dancers and composers and the sharing of music-making in different environments.
LANSDOWN NARROPERA PERFORMANCES – March 2021
LANSDOWN NARROPERA's 8th season of narrated opera will be entirely devoted to one opera, Carl Maria von Weber's masterpiece, 'Der Freischütz' (The Devil's Marksman). This opera changed the course of classical music, launching a century of 'Romantic Music'. Its gripping story and wonderfully memorable music combine to explain why there is hardly an opera, in the whole history of opera, which has received so many performances. Four of the five March 2021 performances in LANSDOWNE HOMESTEAD will take place on Sunday mornings, beginning at 11AM. The performance lasts 80 minutes and members of the audience, if they wish, can bring Sunday lunch picnics to enjoy after the performance, in Lansdowne's beautiful gardens. The one non-Sunday performance is on a Thursday evening performance, beginning at 7.30PM. The various reasons why 'Der Freischütz' is now so little known in New Zealand might individually seem rather trivial but, taken collectively, they have laid waste to a formerly healthy tradition. For, up until 1925, Weber's 'Der Freischütz' was among the best known operas in New Zealand, often performed, and in centres throughout the country, from Auckland to Invercargill. The year 2021 is most appropriate for shining new light onto this jewel of the opera stage, since the first performance of 'Der Freischütz' took place, in Berlin, exactly two hundred years ago, in 1821. That performance lit a torch which swept around Europe to every corner. Within 30 years, it was performed in Buenos Aires and Sydney and it reached NZ in performance in 1876.
'DER FREISCHÜTZ' by Carl Maria von Weber
SUNDAY, 7TH MARCH 2021, 11AM - 12.20PM
THE NARROPERA TRIO
starring DOROTHEE JANSEN (soprano)
'DER FREISCHÜTZ' by Carl Maria von Weber
SUNDAY, 14TH MARCH 2021, 11AM - 12.20PM
THE NARROPERA TRIO
starring DOROTHEE JANSEN (soprano)
'DER FREISCHÜTZ' by Carl Maria von Weber
THURSDAY, 18TH MARCH 2021, 7.30PM - 9.20PM
THE NARROPERA TRIO
starring DOROTHEE JANSEN (soprano)
'DER FREISCHÜTZ' by Carl Maria von Weber
SUNDAY, 21ST MARCH 2021, 11AM - 12.20PM
THE NARROPERA TRIO
starring DOROTHEE JANSEN (soprano)
'DER FREISCHÜTZ' by Carl Maria von Weber
SUNDAY, 28TH MARCH 2021, 11AM - 12.20PM
THE NARROPERA TRIO
starring DOROTHEE JANSEN (soprano)
The Performers
DOROTHEE JANSEN, HAYDN RAWSTRON, FLORIANE PEYCELON.
DOROTHEE JANSEN Soprano
Dorothee Jansen was born in Bonn and studied voice at the Cologne and Freiburg Conservatories and then became member of Cologne Opera Studio. She graduated from the latter directly into the ensemble of the Cologne Opera, where Fiordiligi, Pamina, Musetta, and Annina were amongst her first major roles. As a freelance singer, she has sung in opera houses, symphony concert halls, and chamber music halls throughout Europe and Australasia: from the Teatro alla Scala di Milano to the Bayreuth Festival; from the Konzerthaus Vienna to the Concertgebouw Amsterdam; from the Wigmore Hall London to the Sala Paganini Parma. She is also internationally renowned for her interpretations of Schubertlieder. In 2013, Dorothee co-founded The Narropera Trio and the Lansdown Festival.
HAYDN RAWSTRON Continuo & Narration
Haydn Rawstron, Cantabrian, was born in Darfield and educated in Christchurch, New Zealand, first as a chorister in the Christchurch Cathedral Choir and later at Christ's College. As an Oxford undergraduate, he was Christopher Tatton organ scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, taking his degree in musicology, specializing in opera, particularly in the works of Richard Wagner. In 1977, he founded in Europe the agency Haydn Rawstron Limited, and built the worldwide careers of important international opera singers, conductors, and stage directors. He sold his agency in 2009, the same year in which HM The Queen conferred on him membership of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his cultural and heritage work on behalf of New Zealand in Britain. In 2014 the French Government honoured him with Chevalier (knight) de l’ordre des Arts et Lettres for his services to French culture.
CATHY IRONS Violin
Neo-Cantabrian from South Africa. Began violin studies at the age of nine and within several years won prizes at The Natal Eisteddfod, also appearing on national TV and radio. Studied with concertmaster of the Kwa-Zulu Natal Philharmonic Orchestra. An alumna of The University of Natal, B-Mus with distinction in orchestra performance and joined the K-Z Natal Philharmonic, before emigrating to Canterbury. Currently, member of the 1st violin section of the CSO. Founded The Tres Cordes String Trio, which toured nationally for Chamber Music NZ and guested, in 2019, at The Deia International Festival in Mallorca, Spain. Enjoys collaboration with jazz musicians, artists, dancers and composers and the sharing of music-making in different environments.
THE GENESIS OF LANSDOWN FESTIVAL OF NARROPERA
FOUNDED IN FEBRUARY 2014.
Lansdown Festival of Narropera is a by-product of the earthquakes that rocked Canterbury (2010 – 2014) and destroyed central Christchurch. Christchurch was left with virtually no performing venues in the city centre. To help address this situation, the trustees of The John Robert Godley Memorial Trust decided to open Lansdown House and Gardens to a concert- and theatre-going public. The large Golden Room in Lansdown House, with its high coved ceiling, chandeliers and elegant rimu and mahoganny panelling and doors, lent itself perfectly as a chamber-music venue. The expansive heritage gardens and picturesque Halswell River suggested a glyndebourne-like setting for picnics on lawns, before an indoor performance. Given the operatic experience of Dorothee Jansen and her husband, Haydn Rawstron, the ambience and opportunity inspired them to invent a radical framework for presenting condensed opera in a narrated, chamber music form, designed both for the opera-virgin as well as for the opera fan. Deciding on a trio of performers (voice, violin, piano/narrator) and a clear, story-telling approach partly in word and partly in song, narropera was born at Lansdown, with three experimental performances in February 2013. Their popularity gave rise to the 1st Lansdown Festival of Narropera, a year later. Already in July 2013 narropera had been exported to Kent, in England. By 2016, the Trio was able to present its first full European season of narropera, with performances in England, Germany and the Isle of Man. Since then, overseas performances have been given in Germany, in Bayreuth, Bonn, Bad Godesberg and Schleswig Holstein (www.neverstaven.de). In England, there have been many performances: in Snargate (Romney Marsh); in Hythe, Folkestone, Dover, Ashford, Canterbury; in Oxford and Dorchester; in Walcot Hall, Shropshire. On the Isle of Man, there have been performances in Peel, Port Erin, Douglas, Ramsey and Castletown. The 2019 Lansdown Festival will open with the 81st narropera performance since the first experimental series in 2013. Ownership of the Lansdown Festival of Narropera belongs with The John Robert Godley Memorial Trust.
Lansdown House and Gardens
A Cantabrian home rich in history.
Time corrupts. 'Lansdown' came in time to be written Lansdowne. 'House' became Homestead. However, for the purpose of The Lansdown Festival of Narropera, we have chosen to revert to the original spelling of Lansdown (named after Lansdown in Bath, England) and to reinstate the name ‘House’.
It is worth doing so, because Lansdown is one of the most historic properties in Canterbury. Its first owner was William Guise Brittan, ancestor of the legendary Capt Charles Upham, who a century later later named his North Canterbury farm after Lansdown, albeit by then with the 'e'. Brittan was the first person to buy land in the Canterbury Association settlement scheme and as such can be called ‘the first Cantabrian’. He arrived in the new colony a year later on board the Charlotte Jane, the first Canterbury Association ship to make the journey from England. Brittan built a substantial two-story house on his Lansdown estate and laid out extensive gardens, planting an impressive number of exotic trees. Brittan’s house burnt down. Shortly afterwards, the Lansdown estate was bought by Edward Stafford (later Sir Edward), a passionate landscaper. However, more famously, Stafford was the longest serving prime minister in New Zealand’s 19th century history. Stafford built the second House at Lansdown around 1870, a large two-story building, using dense, basalt stone from the Halswell Quarry and Welsh slate for the roof. He chose a new section, upon which to build his House, but still within sight of where Brittan had built, a good decade before. The ruins of Brittan’s House disappeared into Stafford's new house and Stafford had Brittain's exotic trees transplanted to produce an instant garden around his new house. Stafford's spectacular gardens with trees from all over the world became known as ‘The Garden of Canterbury’. This historic garden has survived, albeit in two parts (the smaller part being sub-divided from the main part, and sold around 1960). The present Lansdown Garden covers three acres. Stafford’s house was demolished in 1960 and its building materials of basalt and slate, were crafted beautifully into the present, third House at Lansdown. It is the work of the finest Cantabrian architect of the day, Heathcote Helmore, and is incidentally Helmore’s last work. Lansdown House and Garden is now owned by The John Robert Godley Memorial Trust, named in honour of the man who founded both the province of Canterbury and its capital, Christchurch.