Lansdown Summer Festival

27/03/2022

On this day 27th March, in 1848, the Canterbury Association Management Committee chose the name of Christchurch for the 'chief town' of Canterbury Settlement in New Zealand. Committee Chairman was the Bishop of Oxford (Wilberforce) and half of the remaining committee members were alumni of Christ Church, Oxford: Courtenay (later 11th Earl 'the good earl' of Devon), Charteris (later 10th Earl of Wemyss), Adderley (later 1st Lord Norton), Sir William Farquhar Bt., Somers C***s and John Robert Godley 'Founder of Canterbury'. Godley, who proposed the name, wrote to his father, that he hoped his 'old College' would be grateful to him for naming Christchurch after it. William Turner's painting was executed in 1832, the year Godley first went up to Christ Church. The other Housemen were either Godley's direct contemporaries or his near contemporaries.

09/11/2021

Canterbury, New Zealand and this appreciation of Narropera from our most recent narropera performances, only a couple of months ago. We managed 9 normal live performances (out of 16 scheduled) in our NZ sojourn during the recent period when live performances in Europe were an impossiblity. Having now returned to Europe, we begin again our european narropera performances: also in Canterbury (but this time in Canterbury, Kent) on 24th November, with Carl Maria von Weber's 'Der Freischütz'.

03/08/2021

Narropera, the Lansdown(e) invention. An excellent performance yesterday of our narropera Der Freischütz at St Michael's School inaugurated 'Narropera in Schools in New Zealand'. Hard on its heals, follows a second Christchurch school, St Andrew's College. In this inspiring, post-earthquakes building we will present our Marriage of Figaro narropera, on 23rd August.

25/07/2021

Margarita Doychinova - Deyell is with Andrew John Deyell.
45m ·
Thank you Haydn Rawstron for another memorable narropera!
Wonderful narration and brilliant performance!
We enjoyed it very much.

After Narropera Trio’s afternoon performances of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, the Trio now turns its attention to another great work, Carl Maria von Weber’s brilliant opera, Der Freischütz (The Devil’s Marksman).

06/06/2021

Book direct: [email protected]

28/01/2021

Nature's 'fanfare' for "Freischütz", the masterpiece which unleashed the power of nature into the world of opera, exactly 200 years ago. We will celebrate this important milestone in German and European culture at Lansdowne Homestead. Our "Freischütz" Narropera Season 2021: 7,14, 18, 21, 28 March. Visit www.courttheatre.org.nz/lansdown for details.

22/12/2020

We ended 2020 with four brilliant instrumental solo recitals in the Golden Room (M. Riseley, T. Dennis, J. Tanner, Jeremy Woodside, Cathy Irons and T. Hurnik) and with warm admiration from an enthusiastic public. In 2021 we will resume our Narropera seasons on MOSTLY SUNDAY MORNINGS in MARCH and with Carl Maria von Weber's 'Der Freischütz' (The Huntsman), the masterpiece opera that chartered the course of 19th century music. For info. courttheatre.org.nz/lansdown

28/11/2020

JOY, WONDERMENT, RELIEF, ASPIRATION. Cantabrians, come celebrate the founding of Canterbury in the Golden Room. All details: www.courttheatre.org.nz/lansdown

05/05/2020

Autumn at Lansdown, adjacent the Halswell River. A major pruning of the river bank has reopened the river path to the river itself.