Opera star Simon O'Neill returns to Whanganui for New Zealand Opera School

Opera star Simon O'Neill is one of the tutors at this year's New Zealand Opera School in Whanganui. Photo / NZME

International tenor Simon O'Neill is loving being home in New Zealand having spent months working in Covid-19 hotspots overseas.

As patron of the New Zealand Opera School, O'Neill is also again one of the New Zealander contingent of tutors. The school, founded by chairman Donald Trott, starts its 28th year on Monday, January 9.

O'Neill said he cannot wait to be back at the Whanganui Collegiate School campus with this year's 21 successful young singers all eager to work and train hard.

"It's an honour to be selected as a student at the school where the standard of teaching is extraordinary," he said. "I was at the first school and it really was the beginning of my life. I love that man Donald Trott, I owe him so much."

The new students will be experiencing an adrenalin rush of nerves and huge excitement that comes with being selected for the school, he said.

"It's a wonderful, wonderful time for them."

Recently home from working and living overseas in the midst of Covid, O'Neill said as well as being double vaccinated with Pfizer in New Zealand he was double vaccinated again with the Moderna vaccine in London.

"And I'm fine. Vaccines do work. I was living with Covid all around me."

Everyone at this year's opera school is double vaccinated in line with the school's requirement when applying.

O'Neill's name has also been listed in a Grammy nomination, with the awards to be announced in Los Angeles on January 31.

He was solo tenor in the extremely demanding role of Dr Marianus in the Grammy-nominated Mahler's Symphony No.8 under the baton of megastar conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It has been nominated for best choral performance and best engineered album (classical).

"It's very exciting but I won't be there sadly. I will be heading back to Europe - that's where my work is. Even though we only have 50 per cent of our audiences [due to Covid restrictions], we are still working in the great opera houses of the world."

And those great opera houses were where many of the young singers would eventually be - and so many already were, he said.

"The absolute beauty of our young singers is that we are multi-cultural and so are producing superb voices. Our opera school is simply their magnificent beginning, a school to be so proud of."