Bringing together creative minds from different disciplines is exciting and challenging. It is especially so when the collaborations involve artists with different cultural roots. Witi Ihimaera and I worked together on two operas - Waituhi and Tanz der Schwane (The Dance of the Swans). The libretto of Waituhi was developed from Witi's book Whanau and is the story of Witi's own village and family. Tanz is about an Austrian nurse arriving to live in small town New Zealand shortly after WWII.