[2] The Trust's first professional production was Verdi's La traviata at Victoria University's Memorial Theatre, which opened on 21 September 1982.
[4] In 1984 the Trust added five members to its board and changed its name to Wellington City Opera, to emphasise its connection to the capital and better attract corporate sponsorship.
[12] The company continued a succession of professional productions, including The Merry Widow (1993), Turandot (1994), Peter Grimes (1995), and Rigoletto (1996).
[12] In 1996 a drop in world oil prices caused Caltex NZ to cut back its support of the company, and Creative New Zealand reduced its funding in 1997 and 1998.
[15] La bohème had a young cast, with Sarah Hills and Jae-Woo Kim as Mimi and Rodolfo, and Jonathan Lemalu in his professional opera debut as Colline.
It was theatre director Colin McColl's first opera, and the contemporary setting prompted one critic to call it "Puccini as Trainspotting".
[16] Popular and successful, it was followed later that year by Verdi's Otello, with seasoned performers Suzanne Prain and her real-life husband Christopher Doig, in a rare return to the stage, as Desdemona and Othello (They had previously appeared together as Mimi and Rodolfo in the 1991 production of La bohème).
[18] Mozart's The Magic Flute opened in March 1999, with Debbie Wai Kapohe as Pamina and Mark Pedrotti as Papageno; it used the sets and costumes from the 1996 Canterbury Opera production.