Be part of something extraordinary
UPDATE 12/8/25: Our choirs in Ōtautahi and Te Whanganui-a-Tara are now at capacity. We still have availability for all three choir cohorts in Tāmaki Makaurau – please register your interest prior to our next wānanga session on August 23rd.
This September, we’re proud to perform The Monster in the Maze, a community-centric opera presented in partnership with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Auckland Philharmonia across Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
In 2025, the project features award-winning creative Anapela Polataivao ONZM (Tinā, Red White & Brass, Things That Matter, Wild Dogs Under My Skirt) at the helm in her NZ Opera directorial debut. Scored for professional singers, a youth chorus, a children’s chorus, a community choir, and orchestras of professional players playing alongside young or pre-professional players drawn from the local area, The Monster in the Maze is an opera designed to celebrate the embedding of a performing arts organisation within its community.
The project is currently looking for enthusiastic people who love music and want to be part of a joyous experience – and for community singers, no experience or music-reading ability is required. The opera is short (50 minutes), easy to learn and sung in English, and it’s completely free to take part. Other key details are as follows:
- There will be no auditions for this project – all who’d like to sing (allowing for set maximum chorus sizes) will be welcome to take part.
- All music learning materials will be provided by NZ Opera via a secure link to an online learning hub. Resources available via the hub include karaoke-style videos, lyric sheets and sheet music, but please note that we are not able to supply printed or PDF versions of the sheet music for this production.
- We are looking for choirs in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch, with separate groups for children, youth and adults.
- Rehearsals take place across 8 weeks in July and August, and are held on evenings and some weekends – as all participants would be required to attend all rehearsals, these have been planned to sit outside of standard work and school hours.
- The production will culminate with two performances in each centre across September – Christchurch on September 5 & 6, Wellington on September 12 & 13 and Auckland on September 19 & 20.
We’d love for you to be part of this special production, so if you’re interested in singing with us, simply fill out this questionnaire and our Participation team will get in touch with the next steps.
Let’s bring this story to life together!
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