Skip to content
Simpson, Adrienne
Writer's File

Adrienne Simpson

Deceased
Simpson, Adrienne
In brief
Adrienne Simpson’s interests ranged from writing for opera to writing about cricket. She also enjoyed working as a musicologist, historian, and broadcaster. She said, ‘This argument that people who are interested in the arts aren't interested in sports, and vice versa, is one of these great New Zealand myths.’ Adrienne Simpson published a huge range of books including Opera's Farthest Frontier - a History of Professional Opera in New Zealand (1996), Classic Kiwi Sport: Cricket (1996), and Hallelujahs and History (2005), a commissioned history of Auckland Choral.
Bio

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Simpson, Adrienne (1943 - 2010) was an opera-writer, musicologist, historian, broadcaster and avid cricket fan who saw no contradiction in her range of interests: 'This argument that people who are interested in the arts aren't interested in sports, and vice versa, is one of these great New Zealand myths,' she said. 'I would be very sorry if people thought my history of opera was any the less scholarly and approachable because I happen to also have done a book about cricket.'

Simpson's books share a commitment to presenting aspects of New Zealand's social history in an accessible, literate format that is still informed by serious scholarship.

'Simpson's greatest asset is an engaging writing style that transforms a mountain of detail into the sort of stories you could... inject into a dinner party,' writes Lindis Taylor in the The Evening Post.

Adrienne Simpson held National Library of New Zealand and John David Stout Fellowships. Her work has been published in Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand. She has contributed to a number of major publications, including The Book of New Zealand Woman (1991); The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992); The International Dictionary of Opera (1992); Women Together (1993); Cambridge University Press's Companion to the Recorder (1995); and Janacek Studies (1999); The Oxford Companion to Australian Music (1997); Sport, Society and Culture in New Zealand (1999); The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2000); The Oxford Companion to Music (2002); the centenary history of The Theatre Royal Christchurch (2008), and several volumes of the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.

Adrienne Simpson's titles are: Easy Lute Music (1975); Opera in New Zealand (1990); Southern Voices: International Opera Singers of New Zealand (with Peter Downes) (1992); The Greatest Ornament of their Profession - the New Zealand Tours of the Simonsen Opera Companies 1876 - 1889 (1993); Opera's Farthest Frontier - a History of Professional Opera in New Zealand (1996); Classic Kiwi Sport: Cricket (1996); Alex Lindsay - the Man and his Orchestra (with Geoffrey Newson) (1998); Capital Opera (2000); Alice May: Gilbert and Sullivan's First Prima Donna (2003), and Hallelujahs and History (2005).

Adrienne Simpson passed away in December 2010.

MEDIA LINKS AND CLIPS

Related writers

View all