Operatic roles include Madame Larina: Eugene Onegin (Days Bay); Medora:
Il corsaro (New Zealand School of Music); Orlofsky: Die Fledermaus (Opera
Factory); Rusalka: Rusalka (Canterbury Opera Youth adaptation); and Witch
I: Dido and Aeneas (Canterbury Opera Youth). She is also an experienced
chorus member with New Zealand Opera, recently touring the country in their
production of Sweeney Todd; an accomplished actor, notably performing the
roles of Ophelia and Emilia; composer (1st place in the New Zealand Sheilah Winn
Shakespeare Music Composition Competition); and has considerable experience
as a conductor, musical director and private singing teacher.
On the concert platform, Elisabeth has been the soloist for works which include:
Handel’s Messiah; Haydn’s Paukenmesse; Bach’s B Minor Mass; Mendelssohn’s
Elijah; Donizetti’s Messa Di Requiem ; Beethoven Symphony No. 9, Opus 125; the
Mozart Requiem ; and Vaughan William’s Mass in G .
Likened to the ‘great ones’ such as Kathleen Ferrier, “Elisabeth’s tremendously rich
voice, within which she moves with consummate ease throughout her substantial
vocal range,” has been widely recognised on the competition circuit. In July 2016,
Elisabeth was awarded First Place in the Dame Malvina Major Aria competition in
Christchurch, and in 2014 Elisabeth received the ‘Runner Up’ Award for the Dame
Malvina Major Aria in Wellington. Additionally, Elisabeth was a 2016 finalist for the
New Zealand Aria Competition in Rotorua.
This year, in addition to singing in the chorus of New Zealand Opera’s production
of Carmen, and their concert version of The Damnation of Faust , Elisabeth will be
engaged in further solo oratorio work with the Palmerston North Choral Society,
the Kapiti Chorale, and the Auckland Choral Society, and is performing the role of
Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro for the Eternity Opera Company in Wellington.
Elisabeth is a recipient of a Dame Malvina Major Canterbury Arts Excellence
Award and she wishes to gratefully acknowledge the significant support of the
Foundation for its role nurturing her vocal career.
Robert Macfarlane tenor
Robert Macfarlane studied at the Elder
Conservatorium in Adelaide and subsequently
at the Hochschule für Musik, Leipzig ‘Felix
Mendelssohn-Bartoldy’ with Prof. Dr. Jeanette
Favaro-Reuter, as recipient of the prestigious
Thomas Elder Overseas Scholarship. He undertook
extensive study of the Baroque repertoire with
tenor Howard Crook and has also studied and
performed with world-renowned accompanist
Malcolm Martineau. Robert Macfarlane was the
winner of the Adelaide Critic’s Circle award for
best individual performance in 2012 (Bach- St. John Passion ), a finalist in the
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