TANZOS: a springboard for outstanding young opera singers in Aotearoa

Soprano Madeleine Pierard has a brilliant new operatic role. She’s not a character in an on-stage drama this time, but head of TANZOS, or, to give it its full name, Te Pae Kōkako: The Aotearoa New Zealand Opera Studio at the University of Waikato.

As Dame Malvina Major Chair in Opera, Professor Pierard recently announced TANZOS’ first intake of students for its new Master of Music programme in Advanced Opera Studies.

She’s hugely excited about the programme, which she describes as “a bridge, a springboard for Aotearoa’s stunning young singers”.  The 2023 intake for the applied Masters course has six singers, auditioned from a field of 21: sopranos Rhiannon Cooper and Katherine Winitana, mezzo-soprano Cecilia Zhang, tenors Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono and Taylor Wallbank and baritone Alfred Fonoti-Fuimaono.

TANZOS was the vision of Dame Malvina Major, one of New Zealand’s best-known and most-loved opera singers. Her Foundation heads the list of donors for the initiative and she describes the Opera Studio as “a dream come true”. From the beginning, Dame Malvina’s Foundation has been committed to "sharing the dream", and her strong desire is to see young singers travel "from grassroots to excellence".

Dame Malvina Major (centre), at the announcement of the first intake of TANZOS students

with (clockwise from left) Katherine Winitana, Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono, Madeleine Pierard and Katie Trigg

Like Pierard, Dame Malvina is aware of the huge expense of overseas study for young opera singers. The new programme allows them to advance their careers while remaining in New Zealand for this stage of their training.

Of course, as Pierard is well aware from her own experiences, the industry connections formed through overseas conservatories and training programmes can be invaluable to an international operatic career. She has spent the past 15 years living in London, first studying at the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio before becoming a Jette Parker Young Artist at the Royal Opera House. How will she ensure the young singers who remain here develop those international contacts?

Her eyes light up as she explains the TANZOS plans. “We’re trying to form those important connections before people go, so they may be able to skip that step. We’re bringing out the heads of the Young Artists programme at the Royal Opera House in December this year. They’ll take public masterclasses with our students and with some from other universities as well. They’re also interested in visiting grassroots programmes like Prima Volta in Hawkes Bay. And we’re bringing over British baritone Sir Simon Keenlyside in April, for private sessions with the students as well as public masterclasses in Hamilton and Christchurch. It’s cool, we’re exposing our students to what’s happening in the rest of the world, and also hoping to operate nationally by opening opportunities up for sharing with other New Zealand university courses.”

The TANZOS students will have regular classes in song, oratorio and historical performance, recitative, European languages for singers, individual tuition in spoken German - “because this is 100% the main language that people speak in this industry, in every opera house inside and outside Germany” – plus yoga, movement, dance and stagecraft every week. The course also includes resilience training and access to performance psychology.

New Zealand soprano Anna Leese

…one of a team of internationally experienced opera singers teaching the TANZOS students

The young singers will be taught by two New Zealand opera stars who have studied and worked internationally, soprano Anna Leese, who has moved from Dunedin to take the role, and mezzo Kristin Darragh. Alongside them will be Japanese American soprano Nikki Li Hartliep, who, “serendipitously”, says Pierard, now lives in New Zealand after a major international singing career that included teaching through her own opera studio in New York City for 25 years. In November, American singer Jack Li Vigni, who teaches at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and travels and teaches internationally, will come to work with the TANZOS students. Pierard worked with him at the Royal Opera House and discovered his close friendship with Li Hartliep only after his New Zealand visit was confirmed. “More serendipity!”, she laughs.

The TANZOS programme is bespoke, able to be so because of its external sponsorships, donor funding and flexible criteria. Pierard is full of gratitude to the Dame Malvina Major Foundation and other donors including Sir William and Lady Judi Gallagher, major arts patrons in Hamilton.

Courses will be designed individually, and if a student is progressing well with a current teacher, they can stay with that teacher. Professional engagements during their course can be accepted and they may be assessed externally through this work. The programme has a direct relationship with NZ Opera, facilitating negotiation of arrangements. “It’s a really lovely era of collaboration,” says Pierard. “We have freedom to support our students. If they have an engagement in another city, we can arrange coaching for them there within our programme. I love being able to be flexible – I want to ensure they get as much out of it as possible.”

Tenor Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono is one of the 2023 TANZOS intake. I find him working in Hawkes Bay, playing Tamino in Festival Opera’s The Magic Flute alongside seasoned professionals Emma Pearson and Kieran Rayner, an experience he describes as “crazy awesome!”.  He’s looking forward to his upcoming course. "Being accepted into the Te Pae Kōkako Masters Studies programme means I can elevate my vocal and performance development to a whole new level. And having some of the top international artists and teachers in the opera world being brought here to New Zealand is an opportunity of a lifetime - I plan to make the most of this exciting experience.”

Tenor Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono

…TANZOS offers “an opportunity of a lifetime.”

Pierard also feels responsible for realising Dame Malvina’s vision in a way the older singer is happy with. “I hope this is what you imagined?”, Pierard asked her recently. “Actually,” Dame Malvina replied, “it’s much more than I imagined.”

For family reasons, Pierard is delighted to be back living in New Zealand. Her three young daughters are enjoying their New Zealand schooling and getting to know their cousins. “We were in a shoebox flat in London and the pandemic years were very difficult, as you can imagine. We’re enjoying having space and a view.”

But for this outstanding singer, Pierard’s new role is also, she says, “really wonderful” because it requires her to continue her international performing career. Her active involvement in the industry and the connections this brings are essential to her TANZOS work. When we talked, she was about to sing in Nelson’s Opera in the Park; after the TANZOS programme begins in March she heads away to Australia for a month singing Ariana in Giustino by Italian Baroque composer Giovanni Legrenzi for Pinchgut Opera.

She can’t yet talk about the “really cool job” that is taking her to Europe in September but is also excited about New Zealand engagements later this year, singing Sibelius’s tone poem Luonnotar with the NZSO conducted by Gemma New, and immediately afterwards the role of Marie in Alban Berg’s Wozzeck for Orchestra Wellington.

“And I tend to do a lot of ‘jump-ins’”, she laughs, most recently in November last year in a concert performance of Beethoven’s Fidelio at the Sydney Opera House, with New Zealand colleagues Simon O’Neill and Jonathan Lemalu. Originally contracted at short notice to sing the role of Leonore in ensembles, for the second performance another singer’s illness meant she found herself singing the big Leonore aria with a few hours’ notice, sight-reading, with no run-through with conductor Simone Young or the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, in a performance recorded by the ABC.

“I don’t know how I had the audacity,” she says, “but Simon and Jonathan were so supportive. That’s what I love about working in opera; you form extraordinary relationships with colleagues, friends for life from every contract. I tell that to all the students. It’s so collaborative, it keeps feeding you.”

Madeleine Pierard singing with New Zealand tenor Simon O’Neill in Beethoven’s Fidelio with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House in November 2022