Opera Gala 2026 Brings Some Of Opera’s Greatest Music To Auckland Town Hall
by Manukau Symphony Orchestra · SCOOPThe Manukau Symphony Orchestra and Auckland Opera Studio present Opera Gala 2026 on Sunday 28 June at 5.00pm in the Auckland Town Hall – an evening bringing together some of the most dramatic, beautiful, and emotionally charged music ever written for the opera stage.
Conducted by Uwe Grodd and directed by John Davies, the concert features leading New Zealand soloists Felicity Tomkins, Breony Bearman, Ridge Ponini, and Alfred Fonoti-Fuimaono, alongside Auckland Choral, The Cloud Children’s Choir, and internationally renowned violinist Amalia Hall.
The programme moves from the explosive energy of Verdi’s famous ‘Anvil Chorus’ and Puccini’s monumental ‘Te Deum’ from Tosca, to music from Carmen, Faust, Thaïs, Cavalleria rusticana, and the devastating final act of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut.
Rather than presenting opera as distant or elitist, Opera Gala 2026 focuses on the sheer immediacy of the music itself: massive choruses, soaring voices, sweeping orchestral writing, and stories filled with passion, jealousy, devotion, violence, redemption, and heartbreak. The concert brings together crowd scenes, intimate arias, large-scale finales, and orchestral interludes in a single evening designed to showcase opera at its most theatrical and emotionally direct.
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Violinist Amalia Hall performs Massenet’s ‘Meditation’ from Thaïs and Sarasate’s dazzling Carmen Fantasy, while the combined forces of orchestra and chorus feature prominently in large-scale scenes from Il trovatore, Carmen, Faust, and Tosca.
Whether you already love opera or are experiencing it live for the first time,
Opera Gala 2026
promises an evening of extraordinary musical drama in one of New Zealand’s great concert venues.
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