Opera ‘practically all we talk about’ at NZ Opera School in Whanganui

NZ Opera School student Sarah Hubbard took singing lessons because she "wanted to be the next Adele". Photo / Supplied

New Zealand Opera School student Sarah Hubbard is happy to be on campus at Whanganui Collegiate School for two weeks with people of like mind.

“To be here with everyone loving opera - like it’s the main topic of conversation; actually it’s practically all we talk about. Everything here is about opera, I love it.”

Singing lessons started for Hubbard, who is from Dunedin, when she was 11.

“I decided I wanted to be the next Adele and asked my mum if I could have singing lessons,” she said.

But her voice teacher taught her classical music which was a far cry from singing rock music like international superstar Adele.

“I really loved it, I really fell in love with opera.”

No one in her family - mum, dad and two siblings - is into classical music and they all found it quite weird, she said, especially when she was practising in her bedroom, singing operatic scales and exercises.

“I saved up and bought a small piano for my bedroom and would go in, shut the door and sing every day.”

At just 21 Hubbard has now finished her music degree at the University of Otago and is heading to the Queensland Conservatorium of music next month for her postgraduate certificate.

Hubbard loves her hometown of Dunedin.

In 2016 she was singing with Opera Otago and went on to feature in several productions including the 60th Birthday Extravaganza and Mozart’s Don Giovanni. She was awarded the Colin McDonald Memorial Prize in 2019 and 2021 for musical excellence at Otago University and featured in New Zealand Opera’s 2022 production of Macbeth.

Since 2021, Hubbard has been an alumnus of the New Zealand Opera Schools and last year she was one of the five finalists in the prestigious Lexus Song Quest at the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington.

“My whole family came up to support me. It was wonderful,” she said.

But it was the backing of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in the final that was the greatest thrill, Hubbard said.

“It’s incredible to sing with a full symphony orchestra. I will never forget it.”

She is grateful that before she heads to Queensland to study she has had this time at the Opera School first.

“It is a special time, it really is. All the students absolutely love it. We’re very lucky to have this school.”