Season: 19, 20, & 21 February, 2021

In this compelling new production, Toi Toi Opera’s creative team led by director Sara Brodie and production designer Mark McEntyre, stages Puccini’s one act opera Suor Angelica, written for an all female cast, amid the horrors of a makeshift hospital in World War One. The plot, unfolding in one day amid the mayhem of the suffering of the soldiers, adapts well to the self-sacrifice of nurses in war time.

The drama begins with a request by an infirmary nurse for Sister Angelica, known for her expertise in chemistry, to make one of her herbal potions. The pair are interrupted by the news that a member of Sister Angelica’s family (from which she has been banished), has come to see her.

Soon after, when Sister Angelica learns that she must sign away her inheritance so that her sister can marry and, worse still, that her illegitimate son has died, Puccini gifts us one of his greatest operatic moments, the aria ‘Senza Mamma’. As the opera nears its conclusion Sister Angelica, distraught and betrayed, signs away her inheritance and commits suicide. She ends the opera with a prayer for mercy. The prayer, answered by Mother Mary, brings the opera full circle from the poison of betrayal, through to the power of forgiveness.

With musical and dramatic hints of Puccini’s masterpiece Madama Butterfly, Suor Angelica is an opera not to be missed. This production, starring Sarah-Jane Rennie as Sister Angelica and Leisa Falconer as The Princess, will showcase some of Waitaha Canterbury’s finest operatic and dramatic talent. The opera will be complemented by Elegies - staged scenes featuring the music of Britten, Butterworth, and Vaughan Williams - following the soldiers’ wartime journey, and that of the women left behind on the home front, all under the baton of maestro Mark Hodgkinson.

Cast

Male Chorus

Andy Fu - Tenor

Ian Thomas - Baritone

Creative & Musical Staff

* Jacob Patchett - Assistant Lighting Designer

 Orchestral Ensemble

Mark Hodgkinson - Conductor

Alison Holden - Piano

Jeremy Woodside - Organ & Piano

Matthew Oswin - Violin*

Alastair Sands - Viola

Iain Brandram-Adams - Cello

Gerald Oliver - Double Bass

Susan Dollin - Flute

Craig Given - Percussion

Ian Thorpe - Orchestra Manager

*Concertmaster

Press & Reviews

‘Ingenious Presentation’ - The Press, Christchurch, NZ - 25.02.2021

‘Toi Toi Opera’s Official Launch, and Suor Angelica & Elegies Review’ - New Zealand Opera News, Wellington, NZ - February - May 2021 Edition

‘Toi Toi Opera's ambitious plan for opera in Canterbury’ - RNZ Concert - 10.12.2020

Clarissa Dunn spoke with our artistic director Margot Button and production director Sara Brodie about Suor Angelica & Elegies - listen to the interview and some of the exquisite music from the production:

Programme

Download and print* a copy of our beautiful 2021 season programme here.

Graphic design © Keith Clark & Karyn Taylor-Moore for Toi Toi Opera - 2021, based on artwork ‘Downcast Angel’ © Stephen Doig Art.

* Printing specifications: double-sided A3, folds to A5.

Galleries

Gallery #1 - Suor Angelica - Closed Dress Rehearsal

Photographs from Gallery #1 below were taken at Toi Toi Opera's Closed Dress Rehearsal of Suor Angelica, 16 February 2021, at The Great Hall of The Arts Centre of Christchurch Te Matatiki Toi Ora.

Photographs © Karyn Taylor-Moore or © Alison Holden for Toi Toi Opera 2021