The Trapeze Artists - Music By Anthony Ritchie

Following an award-nominated 2023 Dunedin Fringe Festival season, Opera Otago is back with a mystical re-creation of “The Trapeze Artists”.

Led by Terry MacTavish with Sanaz Rezai, the late Louise Petherbridge’s original production was commissioned from Anthony Ritchie to the poetry of Hone Tuwhare and Cilla McQueen.

Join us on March 17th, 18th, and 19th and be enchanted as the exciting new cast of stunning singers, Tessa Romano, Cathy Highton-Sim, and Kieran Kelly navigates a wide range of musical styles and moods, exploring the danger and beauty of a fragile relationship. Lloyd Williams and Georgie Watts join Rezai to create soaring yet intimate soundworlds, transporting the audience to the edge of the trapeze platform.

This re-creation is of the 1996 world premiere production, originally staged at The Fortune Theatre and now brought to you at Hanover Hall.

A dizzying swing through the air – will the hands slip, or the wrists lock?

“It seems to me that at birth, we are shot into life swinging precariously like trapeze artists, apparently free without fear... After the show in our caravans, we realise that we are often afraid and not altogether free, and then a quieter search for meaning and freedom begins.” – Louise Petherbridge.

Content warning: Haze, flashing lights

*Please note this chamber opera will be sung in English