Mansfield Park

A DELICATE DANCE OF LOVE, AMBITION AND EXPECTATIONS

New Zealand Opera makes its long-awaited return to Ōtepoti in 2025! The sold-out sleeper hit of its 2024 season, Jonathan Dove's Mansfield Park, is making its South Island debut. 

A boldly intimate chamber opera, with two pianists accompanying a compact cast of Aotearoa's finest voices, Mansfield Park begins shortly after Fanny Price’s arrival at her uncle’s eponymous estate.

Fanny – poorer than her country relatives, but pin-sharp – is head over heels for her cousin Edmund. Edmund, training to become a clergyman, finds himself in turn captivated by their new neighbour Mary. Mary’s charismatic brother, Henry, has his own sights set on Fanny, but can she trust him?

And what about Fanny’s uncle Sir Thomas, who insists that she must accept Henry – and his £4,000 a year?

Dove and Alasdair Middleton’s take on this Jane Austen classic is a finely balanced creation, with an intimate beauty and an understated wit; an opera which feels both true to its source material and beautifully, unmistakably modern.

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