Riders to the Sea - 3 & 4 October 2025

He toku tū moana, arā he toa rongonui.

The strength to stand like a rock in raging waters.

Toi Toi Opera with the support of the Vaughan Williams Foundation UK, proudly presents ‘Riders to the Sea’.

Allow yourself to be swept away by the haunting beauty of Vaughan Williams’ tragic opera based on the J. M. Synge play, reimagined for Aotearoa New Zealand in an immersive new production, incorporating the music of Dame Gillian Whitehead, David Hamilton, & John Ireland.

We are delighted to welcome back Sara Brodie (Director) & Mark Hodgkinson (Conductor) to the company to spearhead this extraordinarily special season, featuring a stellar all-local cast, chorus, musical, & creative team.

Louisa Pilkington stars as Maurya, with Erin Connelly-Whyte as Cathleen, Matilda Wickbom as Nora, & Alex Robinson as Bartley. Featuring soprano Holly Evans, & Mahina-Ina Kingi-Kaui on Taonga Pūoro.

A semi-staged production, with chamber orchestra accompaniment, taking to the stage of The Piano, Christchurch from 3-4 October, 2025. 

Venue: The Philip Carter Family Concert Hall, The Piano: Centre for Music and the Arts, 156 Armagh Street, Christchurch                              Duration: 60 minutes, no interval. 
Tickets: From $50 to $65

A masterful opera - powerful, moving, soulful, & unforgettable…

The Opera

Before the opera begins: Maurya, an elderly Irishwoman of the Aran Islands, has lost her husband, father-in-law, and four of her six sons at sea.

While she is sleeping, Maurya's daughters Cathleen and Nora receive word that a body that may be their brother Michael, Maurya's fifth son, has washed up on shore in Donegal, far to the north. Maurya’s sixth and last son, Bartley, is planning to go to the Galway fair to sell horses - but she is fearful of the sea winds and pleads with him to stay - however he insists on going, and will ride ‘on the red mare with the grey pony behind him’. Maurya predicts that by nightfall she will have no living sons.

Both daughters chide their mother for sending Bartley off with an ill word, and so Maurya goes after Bartley to bless his voyage. While she is gone, Nora and Cathleen unwrap clothing from the drowned corpse that confirms it as Michael. Maurya returns home, claiming to have seen the ghost of Michael riding behind Bartley, and begins lamenting the loss of the men in her family to the sea.

Nora then sees villagers carrying a load, which turns out to be the corpse of Bartley, who has fallen off his horse into the sea and drowned. Maurya laments ‘They are all gone now, and there isn't anything more the sea can do to me.’

Programme

Karakia

  1. Roll Down by Peter Bellamy (from the opera The Transports)

11. The Moon is Distant from the Sea by David Hamilton

111. Riders to the Sea by Ralph Vaughan Williams with libretto based on the play by John Millington Synge

1v. When I am Dead, My Dearest by John Ireland

v. Nau mai e te ao mārama by Dame Gillian Whitehead

featuring Taonga Pūoro interludes by Mahina-Ina Kingi-Kaui

Musical Programming by Toi Toi Opera Artistic Director Margot Button & Production Director Sara Brodie

Kā mihi nui ki a koe Mahina, for so generously sharing your tikanga guidance with Sara and the company.

Press

  • Listen to director Sara Brodie and Toi Toi Opera Managing Director Alex Robinson speaking to RNZ Concert’s David Morriss about Riders to the Sea ‘Songs of the sea reimagined for Aotearoa’, 26.9.2025

Principal Cast

Alex also performs When I am Dead, My Dearest by John Ireland (text from the poem by Christina Rossetti).

Toi Toi Opera is deeply grateful to Louisa Pilkington for graciously accepting the lead role of Maurya at short notice due to original cast illness.
Covers: Katherine Doig (Cathleen & Nora), Nigel Withington (Bartley)│Walking Rehearsal Cover: Anna Engelbrecht (Nora)

Featuring

Performing Nau mai e te ao mārama by Dame Gillian Whitehead. Tungia Baker wrote the text, called Tuhituhi, for a celebration of the story of Waitaha’s prophet Te Maiharoa, who led a hikoi up the Waitaki River; Nau mai e te ao marama is a song (or aria) from this work - it is sometimes referred to as ‘the Waitaha aria’.

Comprimario Cast & Chorus

Keening Women

Ghosts (Maurya’s Late Sons)

The principals & chorus also perform Roll Down by Peter Bellamy, and The Moon is Distant from the Sea by David Hamilton - a setting of a short poem by American poet Emily Dickinson.

Musicians

Maestro & Toi Toi Opera Music Staff

Anria Breytenbach - cover répétiteur

Toi Toi Opera Orchestral Ensemble

Sarah Coulter - flute

Malcolm McCulloch - oboe

Sue Bealing - clarinet

H Bloomer-Law - bass clarinet

Jonathon Tressler - percussion

Stephen Weir - timpani

Michael Lawrence - organ

Production Team

William Buffham - Orchestral Reduction Riders to the Sea

Sean Hawkins - Lighting Designer

Sara Brodie - Lighting Designer & Operator

Pim Van Duin - Set Design/Build

Julian Anderson - Properties Design/Build

Katherine Doig - Wardrobe Assistant

Gavin Bailey - Stage Manager

Please Consider Making a Donation

Toi Toi Opera is a charitable trust, run by three volunteer directors donating their services free of charge, and striving towards providing fair pay for all of the artists involved in our casts, musical and creative teams, and technical crews.

Your donations are critical to helping us to enable more Cantabrians to experience the thrill of live opera. Our donee organisation status with Inland Revenue means that individuals may be able to claim a 33.33% tax credit for donations over $5.

Thank you for helping to nurture your local operatic artists.

Kā Mihi / Thank You

Toi Toi Opera would like to thank our season sponsors The Vaughan Williams Foundation (UK), The Christchurch City Council, The Aotearoa Gaming Trust, & Kiwi Gaming, for making this extraordinary season possible.

Thank you to Aotearoa NZ composers Dame Gillian Whitehead & David Hamilton for so generously allowing us to incorporate their stunning works into this production.

Thank you to Nick Walshe (SOUNZ), Victoria Meakin (The Press/Stuff), & David Morriss (RNZ Concert) for their features on ‘Riders to the Sea’.

Thank you to our friends & colleagues at NASDA at Ara for their generous assistance with wardrobe for this production, & also to the staff & congregation of Knox Church for welcoming us so generously into their beautiful space for our rehearsals this season. Thank you to all at The Piano, especially to Marcus Norman (Director) & Georgia Wood (Venue & Events Manager) for their invaluable assistance throughout the production process.

We also extend our gratitude to season photographer Wei Li Jiang, campaign & programme graphic designer Katherine Doig, to artist Stephen Doig for the use of his charcoal drawing 'The First Day of Winter' for our season poster, to our front of house Hannah Mason, & to Emma Summers, Rosalind Robinson, & Tamzin Roe for their assistance with costuming. 

This orchestral reduction of Ralph Vaughan Williams' 'Riders to the Sea' by William Buffham © Toi Toi Opera 2025

Season Sponsors Riders to the Sea

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