Sunday, November 28, 2010

A night at the Oamaru Opera House

We recently spent a week in the pleasant town of Oamaru, in New Zealand's South Island, for their annual Victorian Festival.

Fertile land, the growth of pastoralism, and the development of refrigerated shipping (of which more in later entries) made Oamaru a wealthy town in the Victorian era. The easy-to-work limestone found in the area was made into beautiful buildings, many of which still survive and are well-cared for. The people of Oamaru value their heritage.

The Opera House is more recent than some of the other buildings, dating from 1907:



What a gorgeous confection to find in a town of about 12,000 people! And it's well-used. On Saturday night we went to a fine performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers. Front-row seats in the Circle, inside this gem of a theatre:



(My apologies for the poor lighting in this photo.)

This theatre will make a small appearance in one of my future books. How could I resist?

5 comments:

  1. Sounds fabulous, Shayne....A bit of culture would be lovely..I haven't been to the opera for decades!

    Ah yes, Hairy Maclary - one of absolute favourites (along with Slinky Malinkey of course)....my husband used to sing the books to James!

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  2. Your blog never lets me follow you! :(
    But will keep trying. jxx

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  3. It *was* fabulous, Jane! We were quite sorry to leave Oamaru.

    Yay for Hairy Maclary and Slinky Malinkey!

    And thanks for trying to follow. :-) Lovely to see you.

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  4. Pretty! And thanks for the little tidbit about the area. :)

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  5. Thanks, Amy. I love your name :-)

    More posts to come about this charming area.

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