Opera at Otahuna

It’s not everyday that your wine rep is also an opera singer – and is also married to an opera singer, and happens to lives in a city where your favourite luxury lodge is located who is keen to host an exclusive evening showcasing fabulous wine, food and song! And so begins our story of a happy culmination of culinary and musical talents that resulted in ‘Dazzling Divas & Divine Dining’!

Andy and I have been fortunate to stay at Otahuna Lodge, a luxury lodge in Tai Tapu, near Christchurch, over the past few years. We fell in love with this beautiful Victorian mansion that lays claim to having been the largest house in New Zealand in 1895 when Sir Heaton Rhodes, a high-profile pioneer of Canterbury, had it built for his young wife Jessie. The house has just 7 suites and is set in 30 acres of its own century-old botanic and vegetable gardens.

Our first trip to Otahuna was during COVID, when New Zealand’s borders were closed. We, like many others in New Zealand, used the time to explore our own country and it made perfect sense to visit customers – especially accommodation providers whose incomes were severely hit without overseas travellers.

On our first stay, there was only one other couple staying at the Lodge so we were upgraded to one of the two Grand Suites – the Verandah Suite – a suite we later discovered had accommodated the now King of England Charles and his Queen Camilla on their visit to New Zealand a few years back! With a 13 meter veranda and a fireplace in the bathroom as well as the bedroom, it certainly made a ‘right royal’ impression! We dined in the library in our first evening and that’s where we met Jimmy McIntyre – the Executive Chef at the lodge for over 16 years. Jimmy has more than 40 years in the hospitality industry having worked around the globe in some of the most prestigious kitchens.

With the organic potager garden on the estate, Jimmy has over 140 varieties of vegetables, fruits nuts and mushrooms available to him to craft his legendary degustation menus. He, along with his small team of highly skilled chefs, know exactly how to prepare courses that impress with their presentation but more importantly, delight with their flavours! It’s no wonder Otahuna is part of Relais & Chateaux – an association of luxury hotels and restaurants around the world who offer haute cuisine – and with just three lodges in New Zealand part of this esteemed organisation.

So when the idea of hosting an event at Otahuna arose, there was an immediate sense of excitement. We love to add music, and especially opera, to our wine events given my theatrical background. My mother was an opera singer, who earned her living by singing, her entire life, and I am a failed ballerina. A failure I might add due to mainly to height! Having grown too tall for serious ballet, I joined the Australian Opera Company, with whom my mother sang, and for two years performed and toured with the Australian Opera as a dancer. Moving to the other side of the proscenium arch, and armed with a Degree in Musicology, I then worked in marketing the at the Royal Opera House in London. When we came to name our wines, they were all given a musical or theatrical name with our main estate Pinot Noir, The High Note, being the first wine we named – in honour of my mother, Gloria McDonall.

Michael Bayly, who manages the Christchurch market for our distributor, Negociants New Zealand, also happens to have had a musical theatre background – and he is married to soprano Donna Alley! So there was a confluence of theatrical skills and a spectacular mansion to set the scene! The result was evening we called “Dazzling Divas & Divine Dining” where Jimmy and his team showcased their culinary skills with a superb menu that perfectly matched an array of Misha’s Vineyard wines which included a couple of library vintages – from 2009 and 2011! Our opera divas were Donna Alley and Leisa Falconer, who sang an opera selection during the evening that ranged from Delibes to Puccini with some Offenbach and Bizet along the way. Also adding to the vocal treats was Michael Bayly himself, who also juggled a little ‘stage and sound management’.

We started the evening with canapés in the Drawing Room where we enjoyed some jazz favourites from Leisa and Frankie, the pianist. Then Donna’s soprano vocals with an aria from Gounod’s Romeo & Juliet, enticed us all to the great hall, and then a ‘toreador’ (aka Michael) singing a familiar tune from Carmen led us down the hall to the Ballroom where the rest of the evening unfolded. Each course was punctuated with an aria, a salivating menu description from Jimmy and some storytelling from Andy and me – and a little about the wines too. The front-of-house team from Otahuna were as you’d expect …providing a seamless service where nothing was ever a problem and always done with style – and a smile

This evening was made possible by Hall and Miles, who own Otahuna and who are the most fabulous people to work with. We feel privileged to have been able to realise this amazing event after many months of discussion. And we are so fortunate to have Michael Bayly as our ‘partner in crime’ with so many talents around wine and song!

The guests absolutely loved the evening and asked if there was a repeat performance likely. Who doesn’t like an encore? Stay tuned!