A Kiwi tenor superstar who's enthralled audiences at New York's Carnegie Hall and London's Royal Opera House is heading to Tauranga.

Opus Orchestra's ‘An Evening with Simon O'Neill' will feature overtures and tenor arias from Beethoven, Mozart, Weber and Bizet at Baycourt Community and Arts Centre on Saturday, December 10.

Raised in Ashburton, Simon is widely recognised as one of the finest heldentenors – or heroic tenors – of our age, and performs regularly at the world's great opera houses like the Royal Opera House and New York's The Met, says Opus Orchestra music director Peter Walls.

'Heldentenors have rare but brilliant and powerful voices. O'Neill has debuted in numerous major operatic roles to high international acclaim, earning descriptions such as ‘The Wagnerian tenor of his generation' and ‘a turbo-charged tenor'.

'Multi Grammy-nominated, his impressive discography has reviews such as ‘Simon's projection is phenomenal, and the power he can give to his upper register is staggering'.”

Simon appears on the 1998 New Zealand one-dollar performing arts postage stamp, the same year as he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in New York. This year he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Victoria University of Wellington.

Peter conducted some of Simon's first operatic performances including productions of La Traviata for the Gisborne Opera Festival and Cavalleria Rusticana for Opera Whanganui, and has closely followed his career since his student days.

Opus Orchestra's ‘An Evening with Simon O'Neill' is at Baycourt Community and Arts Centre on Saturday, December 10, from 5pm. For tickets, visit: www.orchestras.org.nz

The Weekend Sun has one double past to give away to one lucky reader who can tell us what a heldentenor is?

Enter online at www.sunlive.co.nz under the competition section. Entries must be received by Wednesday, December 7.