We hosted our second extravaganza at Otahuna on Saturday 13th September. This wasn’t just a gastronomic experience but an immersion in some of music theatre’s most dramatic and spine-tingling moments. It’s an evening where all the senses were invoked with sight, sound, storytelling and sumptuous feasting! The musical accompaniment to this evening was drawn largely from The Phantom of the Opera, an Andrew Lloyd Webber classic, but also featured other classics from the musical stage including some Sondheim.
Some fifty masked guests arrived at Otahuna, a stately Victorian Mansion of 1895, and were ushered into the Drawing Room for drinks and canapés. The first wine served was Misha’s Vineyard Dress Circle Pinot Gris – a 2011 vintage, which was drinking splendidly for a 14 years old wine and perfect with the canapes. In fact all the food and wine matches were destined to be perfect as Executive Chef Jimmy McIntyre and his team had worked hard on fabulous food pairings with a selection of Misha’s Vineyard wines from our cellar.
Our first musical serenade was provided by Mark Dorrell, who was our Drawing Room pianist and later our accompanist to the singers in the Ballroom. Mark studied music at Cambridge University, the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio London. He has had a storied career as Music Director with multiple seasons on West End & Broadway. Most recently Mark was Head of Music for NZ Opera and is currently Head of Music for the Music Theatre degree at NASDA. He’s a self-confessed musical theatre lover with a particular soft spot for Sondheim with whom he worked on many occasions. He’s literally a world-famous musical director and we were incredibly lucky to have him join us at Otahuna.
Otahuna co-owner, Hall Cannon and I welcomed our guests from the main staircase, and invited them to the Ballroom with Restaurant Manager Tim Connolly leading the way with a dramatic lit candelabra! Once guests were seated we had two of the most memorable pieces from Phantom of the Opera – Think of Me sung by Alyssa Parkinson and Music of the Night sung by Michael Bayly. We definitely felt ‘the Phantom’ was in the house!
So why does Misha’s Vineyard often link events to music? Our brand has a strong connection to musical theatre, and to opera and fact ballet. It started with my mother, Gloria McDonall who was a child star from 14, with a regular singing spot on radio 3AW in Melbourne. She studied opera and at the age of 20 won the Sun Aria in 1952 – Melbourne’s top opera competition and then in 1957 she won the Shell Aria – Australia’s most coveted opera prize – with prize money of £1000 – a year’s wages for most workers back then! She sang in the chorus of the Elizabethan Opera Company (later known as the Australian Opera). She married and soon after, I was born. Sadly she lost her husband, my Dad, when I was just 2. So I spent much of my early life in her dressing room or watching her from the side of the stage.
Back to our evening event, when we poured a 2012 vintage of our Limelight Riesling. Misha’s Vineyard is known for Riesling with this wine featuring at the pointy end of Air New Zealand planes many times. It’s acknowledged now as a classic wine of New Zealand. As you may well know, Riesling is a wine that has incredible ageing ability – there’s nothing quite like an older Riesling! It’s lovely to have great wines but even better if they’re served with amazing food!
The Executive Chef at Otahuna is Jimmy McIntyre, and he just celebrated 22 years at Otahuna becoming New Zealand’s longest-serving lodge chef. Otahuna Lodge is one of three properties who are Members of Relais et Chateaux in New Zealand – which denotes exceptional dining and personalised services. In fact Jimmy was the Oceania Delegate for Relais & Chateaux World Culinary Council of Chefs for 5 years – a group of 21 chefs from all over the world. Jimmy has cooked for monarchs, heads of state, the world’s leading media and of course for all the guests attending our extravaganza. Jimmy spoke to the guests about the inspiration for the menu and explained the intricacies of our beautifully presented plates.
We then heard another two pieces from The Phantom of the Opera: Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again, sung by Alyssa Parkinson and Prima Donna with Donna Alley and Michael Bayly. Our singers for this evening were pretty special:
Alyssa Parkinson, our heavenly soprano, is a recent Graduate of (NASDA) the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Art, which is the leading institution for musical theatre training in New Zealand and based in Canterbury. She’s had the lead roles in Breaking Plates, Strictly Sondheim, and was currently performing in Blood Brothers but managed to do this special performance at Otahuna.
Michael Bayly, our wonderful baritone, has toured Australasia in both musicals and opera. He has been in Chess, The Secret Garden, Mikado, West Side Story, Sweet Charity, Blood Brothers. Jekyll & Hyde, Me & My Girl, Sweeney Todd, Miss Saigon – and more!
Donna Alley, our sensational soprano, has sung with NZ Opera, Canterbury Opera, and a regular concert performer. She actually played Carlotta (the opera singer) for the sold-out South Island season of The Phantom of the Opera!
And of course Mark Dorrell provided a brilliant accompaniment to our singers.
We then poured the next wine – our Rosé called ‘The Soloist’ and it’s a 2024 Pinot Noir Rosé – a wine that’s regularly acknowledged as one of the top Rosés in the country. It’s dry, delicious and was a perfect pairing for Jimmy’s Otahuna Salumi with Buffalo Mozzarella. After this course our music segued from Andrew Lloyd Webber to Stephen Sondheim. We heard “One More Kiss” from Follies sung by Alyssa and Donna, and then “Lovely” from Putting it Together – sung by Donna. And then it was time for main course – with the lovely Canter Valley Duck served with two Pinot Noirs.
The first Pinot Noir was called The High Note – named in honour of my mother. If you’re going to be an opera singer, the most important thing is hitting The High Note! My mum died the year we planted the vineyard in 2004, so it’s a very personal wine for me. This 2021 vintage was named one of New Zealand’s Top 100 Wines by global critic James Suckling and is rated 95 points or more by all the wine critics. Again it was selected to be served at the front end of Air New Zealand flights. It’s your quintessential Central Otago Pinot Noir. We also poured Verismo – a 2013 vintage from our cellar. We had named our main estate The High Note but when we came to do our Reserve level Pinot Noir, we wondered why could be higher than ‘The High Note’? Verismo is an Italian word meaning truth and realism and was an Italian musical movement in the late 19th century that emphasized realism in opera – telling real life stories of everyday people and a focus on passion and emotion. Before this time, opera had idealized characters – aristocratic or mythological figures – and grand themes, but Verismo was gritty and real. So if you think of composers like Puccini in particular, and operas like Madame Butterfly, Tosca, or Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, you’ll find contemporary settings and emotionally charged vocals where you can hear the drama and passion in the voice. Quite simply the Verismo period was the high point of Italian opera. So we felt the Verismo 2013 would add a little drama and passion to the main course.
After main course, we told our guests about how we started “our vineyard project” with a philosophy of ‘No Compromise’ – to make some of the country’s greatest wines.
And similarly, that’s the case at Otahuna with Jimmy McIntyre, spending time in the garden as well as the kitchen. Otahuna has a Potager to Plate philosophy whereby guests eat as locally as possible. You’re enjoying produce and livestock that’s grown and raised on the property here – across some 30 acres. And in the Potager Garden and orchards, 130 different varieties of organic fruit, nuts, vegetables and mushrooms are grown. The Potager garden is Jimmy’s secret garden – and where all that amazing produce comes from.
All this talk of ‘Secret Gardens’ lead us to two numbers from The Secret Garden – an enchanting, Tony Award-winning musical based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel of 1911 – a compelling tale of forgiveness and renewal. We felt the story behind Secret Garden was much like what Hall Cannon and Miles Refo (owners of Otahuna) had done restoring the house and the gardens to breath new life into the Victorian mansion.
Our final wine was The Cadenza, our late harvest Gewurztraminer with the dessert course. We explained to our guests that the name Cadenza is the fancy, frilly show off piece at the end of a musical piece or aria when one wants to show their musical prowess – an apt name for the wine.
At the conclusion of our meal, Hall welcomed Jimmy and kitchen team to the stage, and we also announced the winner of the ‘Best Mask’! To cap off a perfect evening, we had two final pieces of music from the musical Chess. And then all three singers came on stage for a trio of Phantom of the Opera.
What a night!
