New Zealand Opera

New Zealand Opera is the face of professional opera in Aotearoa New Zealand. The company was formed in 2000 with the merger of the National Opera of Wellington and Opera New Zealand (Auckland), forming New Zealand's first fully professional national opera company. It merged again in 2012 with Southern Opera in Christchurch. Their head office is located in Auckland with a second office in Wellington. The company also runs a Technical Centre in Auckland which has a large rehearsal space, and houses many costumes and sets from previous productions along with the wardrobe and set building workshops.

Since founding, the company has presented over 460 opera performances that include operas, touring productions, festival productions, concerts and other events to audiences of more than 730,000. Alongside this the Company has pioneered extensive participation programmes for school children, young people and adults that have resulted in over 100,000 people engaging with opera in educational and meaningful ways. Furthermore, New Zealand Opera has a thriving Artist Development Programme in association with the Dame Malvina Major Foundation.