Samoan opera star returns home for enduring classic La Bohème
130 years on, Puccini's
La Bohème
remains an enduring classic and beloved opera. At the heart it's a simple story of four friends and their lovers; passionate artists and thinkers whose daily struggles compound and their hardships become tragedies. New Zealand-Samoan baritone Benson Wilson has returned home to appear on stage as Schaunard; one of the quartet of friends.
Now based in London, Benson has been firmly establishing himself as a promising baritone in the opera world. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and won the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Award before relocating over there. In 2016, he's won the Lexus Song Quest and more recently - the Dame Malvina Major Foundation Mina Foley Award. He's performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and has studied and performed multiple languages including Russian and German. It's not his first time in this role; he made his professional debut at Festival Opera in 2016, playing Schaunard. He speaks to
Culture 101
about returning home to play a familiar character with NZ Opera.
La Bohème
is at Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre until the 6th of June before performances in Wellington and Christchurch.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
9 hours ago
- RNZ News
The colour black: A longstanding Kiwi fashion staple
It's long been a fashion staple, and it only takes a look to many of our sports teams or fashion designers to see New Zealanders have long had a love affair with the colour black. In our capital's recycle boutiques - black is the colour above all else that dominates. It even appears to be more popular than usual. Mary Argue reports. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
RNZ News
11 hours ago
- RNZ News
Alan Niven, the NZ born manager of Guns n Roses
This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions. Kiwi born Alan Niven helped shape one of the most explosive, chaotic, and mythic rises in rock history as the manager of Guns n Roses from 1986 through 1991. He got the job, he says, because nobody else wanted it. He wasn't the bottom of the barrel; he was under the barrel. Guns N Roses had a reputation for drug use and handling the notoriously brilliant and volatile lead singer Axl Rose was practically pure torture. Photo: Courtesy of Alan Niven
RNZ News
12 hours ago
- RNZ News
'Songs from the Shaky Isles: A History of Popular Music in NZ"
history media about 1 hour ago For today's music feature we're joined by Gareth Shute His musical pedigree includes touring internationally with bands & helping run record labels. Now he's written a new book, 'Songs from the shaky isles: A short history of popular music in New Zealand' was released yesterday.
