Today in New Zealand International Arts Festival history: Tea, A Mirror Of Soul (2006), Seven Deadly Sins (2008) and Festival Setup (2012)
Well, now that the Festival is rolling, it would usually be a tightly scheduled 24-day marathon for me, jumping from rehearsal to rehearsal to opening night function to post-show function, with the possibility of seeing something in between those two - and from looking back over the years, there were certainly a number of days like that!
Here's a few from the 2006 opera by Tan Dun, Tea, A Mirror Of Soul featuring the composer himself conducting the NZSO at the Michael Fowler Centre; the third image along was one I was clever enough to get autographed by the maestro, and it's sitting on my desk still. Most of these have definitely never been seen, at least not fully - that year we cropped all the images on the site square to suit the Festival's branding & look!
The 2008 opera, Berthold Brecht's Seven Deadly Sins (a one-act opera, done as a pair with The Lindbergh Flight that year) was another situation where my Jacobson Sound Blimp came in handy - my only chance to photograph this one was at the schools performance / dress rehearsal, so I was seated in the audience surrounded by high school students. (Fortunately, with a silenced camera, you can do that!)
And just to keep going on the Festival Setup files, here are a few more from 2012 - visiting venues to check on progress as they get packed in & ready to go!