Singer Nino Surguladze to lead ’Carmen’ season at New Zealand Opera

Georgia’s acclaimed mezzo soprano Nino Surguladze will headline a new season of opera classic Carmen at the New Zealand Opera, with the first show of the program set to launch on Thursday.

Three theatre venues across the country will host performances of the program spanning nearly two months and featuring award-winning opera performers.

Surguladze will be partnered by Grammy Award-winning tenor Tom Randle and Australian baritone James Clayton for the Carmen shows in Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch.

The cast of ‘Carmen’ rehearse ahead of the season’s first program. Photo: New Zealand Opera.

Randle will play Don Jose in Georges Bizet’s 1875 tragedy, while Clayton will portray the role of Escamillo, with performances in St James Theatre, ASB Theatre and Isaac Theatre Royal.

For Surguladze, the Carmen season of the company will mark two decades of performing the role in the famous opera.

Many people see me as a Carmen and I do agree, because I like her. She has all the perfections and imperfections that make a woman wonderful.

She is so real and sincere, she never lies. Not to herself, or to other people. She's very strong and also very vulnerable. Every time I sing her I discover new things about her, as I do in myself", she told New Zealands’s Sunday Magazine ahead of the shows.

The Georgian mezzo soprano has received opera awards for her performances and contribution to cultural relations between countries. The list of prizes includes the 2016 GBOSCAR Best Mezzo Soprano Award in Italy and the country’s Order of the Star in 2015.

She will sing in the staging led by conductor Francesco Pasqualetti in Wellington and Auckland, while Oliver von Dohnanyi will conduct the orchestra in Christchurch.

The New Zealand Opera production of Carmen is directed by Lindy Hume and features production design by Dan Potra and lighting by Matt Marshall.

Established in 2000, New Zealand Opera represents a merger of three local opera troupes: the National Opera of Wellington, Auckland’s Opera New Zealand and Southern Opera in Christchurch.

The company’s productions are created in Auckland, where its technical centre also hosts rehearsals for shows.