Staging opera was a new departure for the Centenary Centre, but embracing a new concept from New Zealand known as Narropera was clearly a big success.
With just three performers on stage, the condensed story of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro was performed partly by narration and partly with song, proving to be a more accessible way of getting to the heart of the story.
It was a tale of passion, impetuosity and deviousness, highlighting betrayal and confession in a simple, but effective approach.
Soprano Dorothee Jansen brought the arias alive with her powerful delivery and expressive performance. She was accompanied by Hanns-Heinz Odenthal on the violin and Haydn Rawstron on piano, who also punctuated the presentation with short, and often humorous descriptions of the story.
