Wellington City Council are being extremely generous with ratepayers’ money at the moment. When we reached Covid-19 Level 2, they announced that Zealandia would be free for General Admission until the end of June. They recently extended this to 19th July, i.e. the end of the school holidays. This is only possible by paying Zealandia a subsidy to cover their lost revenue.
Similarly, they announced a “free” concert by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, to celebrate the return to levels of normality. As Wellington ratepayers, it was our duty to attend.
Starting at 6:30, and with no published duration, we considered it wise to dine beforehand, so headed along to Field & Green – a Wellington hostelry that we had supported during the lockdown, by ordering their take-out menu (which was yum!). It was nice to be able to go back and be in the restaurant again. Their food is modern New Zealand-influenced bistro, and changes often. We were in a bit of a hurry but managed two courses, and decided to have an ice cream at the Michael Fowler Centre for dessert.
We duly headed out at 6:15 to get to the Michael Fowler Centre. We had a bit of a kerfuffle trying to get the QR codes for our tickets, as I’d forwarded them to Nicola, but she couldn’t get them to come up on her phone, and mine insisted that as I’d forwarded them, they were no longer available. Or something. Anyway, we went to the box office and got cardboard tickets, old-stylee.
The concert contained a mixture of New Zealand composers and singers, and other works including Verdi, Puccini, Bizet and Strauss. It started with a Māori chant, and then went into a New Zealand-based work, From The Depths Sound The Great Sea Gongs. The full details are here.
It went on until about 9:00pm so our decision to eat first was vindicated. A jolly good night out, and now I feel all cultural.
