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Lansdown Homestead, Tai Tapu
Description
NameLansdown Homestead, Tai Tapu
Alternative NameLansdowne HomesteadLandsdownDescriptionAround 1857, a Lansdowne homestead was originally built by the early run-holder William Guise Brittan (who named the locality after Landsdown in Bath in Somerset) across the river from the present Lansdown house: he rebuilt on the current site after a fire. He sold Lansdown in 1870 to Sir William Stafford.
(Source: L.G. D. Acland, The Early Canterbury Runs, 1930 p.32)
Lansdown homestead was, until 2023, a venue for the Lansdown Festival of Narropera (narrated opera).
'Lansdown Festival of Narropera is a by-product of the earthquakes that rocked Canterbury (2010 – 2014) and destroyed central Christchurch. Christchurch was left with virtually no performing venues in the city centre. To help address this situation, the trustees of The John Robert Godley Memorial Trust decided to open Lansdown House and Gardens to a concert- and theatre-going public. The large Golden Room in Lansdown House, with its high coved ceiling, chandeliers and elegant rimu and mahoganny panelling and doors, lent itself perfectly as a chamber-music venue. The expansive heritage gardens and picturesque Halswell River suggested a glyndebourne-like setting for picnics on lawns, before an indoor performance. Given the operatic experience of Dorothee Jansen and her husband, Haydn Rawstron, the ambience and opportunity inspired them to invent a radical framework for presenting condensed opera in a narrated, chamber music form, designed both for the opera-virgin as well as for the opera fan. Deciding on a trio of performers (voice, violin, piano/narrator) and a clear, story-telling approach partly in word and partly in song, narropera was born at Lansdown, with three experimental performances in February 2013. Their popularity gave rise to the 1st Lansdown Festival of Narropera, a year later. Already in July 2013 narropera had been exported to Kent, in England. By 2016, the Trio was able to present its first full European season of narropera, with performances in England, Germany and the Isle of Man. Since then, overseas performances have been given in Germany, in Bayreuth, Bonn, Bad Godesberg and Schleswig Holstein (www.neverstaven.de). In England, there have been many performances: in Snargate (Romney Marsh); in Hythe, Folkestone, Dover, Ashford, Canterbury; in Oxford and Dorchester; in Walcot Hall, Shropshire. On the Isle of Man, there have been performances in Peel, Port Erin, Douglas, Ramsey and Castletown. The 2019 Lansdown Festival will open with the 81st narropera performance since the first experimental series in 2013. Ownership of the Lansdown Festival of Narropera belongs with The John Robert Godley Memorial Trust.'
Source: Lansdown website, October 2023Address132, Old Tai Tapu Road
Alternative NameLansdowne HomesteadLandsdownDescriptionAround 1857, a Lansdowne homestead was originally built by the early run-holder William Guise Brittan (who named the locality after Landsdown in Bath in Somerset) across the river from the present Lansdown house: he rebuilt on the current site after a fire. He sold Lansdown in 1870 to Sir William Stafford.(Source: L.G. D. Acland, The Early Canterbury Runs, 1930 p.32)
Lansdown homestead was, until 2023, a venue for the Lansdown Festival of Narropera (narrated opera).
'Lansdown Festival of Narropera is a by-product of the earthquakes that rocked Canterbury (2010 – 2014) and destroyed central Christchurch. Christchurch was left with virtually no performing venues in the city centre. To help address this situation, the trustees of The John Robert Godley Memorial Trust decided to open Lansdown House and Gardens to a concert- and theatre-going public. The large Golden Room in Lansdown House, with its high coved ceiling, chandeliers and elegant rimu and mahoganny panelling and doors, lent itself perfectly as a chamber-music venue. The expansive heritage gardens and picturesque Halswell River suggested a glyndebourne-like setting for picnics on lawns, before an indoor performance. Given the operatic experience of Dorothee Jansen and her husband, Haydn Rawstron, the ambience and opportunity inspired them to invent a radical framework for presenting condensed opera in a narrated, chamber music form, designed both for the opera-virgin as well as for the opera fan. Deciding on a trio of performers (voice, violin, piano/narrator) and a clear, story-telling approach partly in word and partly in song, narropera was born at Lansdown, with three experimental performances in February 2013. Their popularity gave rise to the 1st Lansdown Festival of Narropera, a year later. Already in July 2013 narropera had been exported to Kent, in England. By 2016, the Trio was able to present its first full European season of narropera, with performances in England, Germany and the Isle of Man. Since then, overseas performances have been given in Germany, in Bayreuth, Bonn, Bad Godesberg and Schleswig Holstein (www.neverstaven.de). In England, there have been many performances: in Snargate (Romney Marsh); in Hythe, Folkestone, Dover, Ashford, Canterbury; in Oxford and Dorchester; in Walcot Hall, Shropshire. On the Isle of Man, there have been performances in Peel, Port Erin, Douglas, Ramsey and Castletown. The 2019 Lansdown Festival will open with the 81st narropera performance since the first experimental series in 2013. Ownership of the Lansdown Festival of Narropera belongs with The John Robert Godley Memorial Trust.'
Source: Lansdown website, October 2023
Address132, Old Tai Tapu Roadloading google map....
Lansdown Homestead, Tai Tapu. Selwyn Stories, accessed 06/04/2026, https://selwynstories.selwynlibraries.co.nz/nodes/view/5723
