By Dan Parker
For more than four years the Wanganui Farmer's Market has treated shoppers to some of the region's freshest produce, but this morning there was something a little different on offer.
Students from the nearby New Zealand Opera School surprised shoppers with a performance from La Traviata.
The performance almost had to be abandoned when the lead male vocalist collapsed and was taken to hospital.
But tenor Cameron Barclay stepped in with minutes to spare and sang alongside soprano Amelia Berry.
“I thought it was heaps of fun, it was very, very fun. It was nice to be able to have that sort of contact with people, and to be ale to do it together was really, really nice,” says Mr Barclay.
Among those in the audience was Whanganui's new mayor, also a stall keeper at the market.
“People who were not opera fans were converted. I saw people with tears in their eyes. Fantastic,” says mayor Annette Main.
The nearby Opera School tutors 21 of the country's most promising singers, and Barclay says it's exciting to introduce opera to a new audience.
“They think of opera as big fat people, we’re not, we are hanging together,” says Mr Barclay.
The students will return from the stalls to the stage tonight for a workshop, open to the public.
As for the market. next Saturday things will return to the familiar.
3 News