Mansfield Park

A delicate dance of love, ambition and expectations.

Following its Aotearoa debut as part of our 2024 season, we’re thrilled to announce the return of the Waterperry Opera Festival production of Jonathan Dove and Alasdair Middleton’s cult favourite Austen adaptation, Mansfield Park; back for its first ever shows in Te Waipounamu.

Mansfield Park opens shortly after Fanny Price’s arrival at her uncle’s eponymous estate. We soon learn that 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 our quietly perceptive heroine trust his intentions? And what about Fanny’s uncle, Sir Thomas, who insists that she must accept Henry – and his £4,000 a year?

Dove and Middleton’s take on this Austen classic is a finely balanced thing, with an intimate beauty and an understated wit. It’s also the rare opera where our lead, the quietly observant Fanny, unveils her emotions not only through touching arias and conversations, but through the profound eloquence of silence. It’s a true embodiment of Georgian decorum, taken to the extreme – and with Dove’s elegant score, intricately composed for singers and piano in a chamber setting, one which feels both true to its original context and unmistakably modern.

Staged in two very special venues in Christchurch and Dunedin, a visit to Mansfield Park is a unique, entirely unforgettable experience – care to join us?