Kaleidoscope - Māori Opera Waituhi

Television (Excerpts) – 1984

In this report for arts show Kaleidoscope, Aileen O'Sullivan interviews writer Witi Ihimaera about Waituhi - The Life of the Village, an operatic collaboration with Pākehā composer Ross Harris. Amidst rehearsals before the opera's September 1984 premiere in Wellington, Ihimaera opens up about the personal and spiritual inspirations behind his first ever libretto. Ihimaera has used Waituhi, the East Coast village of his birth, as the setting for several of his novels. His libretto for Waituhi weaves together stories and waiata of love and loss from different generations of one whānau.

The marae is really an operatic experience; if you've ever been on a marae then you've seen everything...
– Writer Witi Ihimaera talks about the similarities between opera and Māori culture