Welcome to our curated collection of Opera Online. We’ll be updating our website on a regular basis and have some lovely things to share with you. We’ve selected a few programmes for you to enjoy during this time at home and will be updating regularly . There are many opera companies and arts organisations that are creating wonderful content or sharing performances from their archives to allow us to keep enjoying the performance of opera, even while we’re all locked down in our homes. We’ll keep updating this article with a selection of opportunities to engage with stories from around the world. If you spot something that you think we should include, email hello@nzopera.co.nz or send us a message on Facebook.

An Easter special from Andrea Bocelli

If you’re not one of the 35 million people who have already watched Andrea Bocelli’s Easter performance from Cathedral Milan, you can enjoy it in your own time on Youtube.

Choose your opera

The Royal Opera House Every Friday (UK time), The Royal Opera premieres another of its productions on YouTube, featuring productions by The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet and in the case of Acis and Galatea, both companies together. The latest is a contemporary production of Così fan tutte. Enjoy them all. Simon O’Neill in Parsifal A free performance of Parsifal has just gone live from the Wiener Staatsoper, with our own Simon O’Neill in the title role, Rene Pape as Gurnemanz and the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Valery Gergiev. The Met Opera Nightly Opera Streams The Met Opera is generously providing a new opera to watch free online every day, available for 23 hours. You can check the latest schedule online – just remember to take timezones into account. If you want to watch Verdi’s Aida on the schedule for Monday 6 April, it is available from 12:30pm on Tuesday 7 April NZT. There are a number of resources available on The Met website too – playbills, interviews and podcasts about the different operas on the online programme, so you can learn the stories behind the production and dive into the details of the works. Marquee TV There’s a wonderful selection of arts programming available on Marquee TV, and you can get a free month-long trial subscription. There are full opera performances from companies including The Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne. Opera North, and if you feel like a change of pace you can enjoy Classic Spring’s Oscar Wilde season or ballet from the Bolshoi. You can view by categories – Italian Opera or Wagner’s Ring Cycle or watch brand new works. The APO’s 2020 Opera in Concert is Britten’s Peter Grimes, and you can view a version performed in the very town that inspired it in Peter Grimes on Aldeburgh Beach. Simon O’Neill and Fritz introduce Wagner’s Die Walküre (New York Philharmonic)

Short and Sweet

There are plenty of low commitment ways to connect with the global opera community if you don’t fancy watching an entire performance. Zoom your favourite opera If you are one of the millions of people taking part in video calls for business or social reasons, you Opera Philadelphia can make your screen look much more exciting. Visit their website to change your Zoom background and you can appear on calls in from the theatre or on stage in an opera.  Instructions provided! Opera from Home The Canadian Opera Company is posting a new aria daily at 6pm New Zealand time on their social media channels. Over the Tasman Our friends across the ditch at Sydney Opera House will be streaming a broad range of programming from classical music to talks on their website.