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Splendid performances and a Nazi makeover turns Puccini's political tragedy into a visceral experience.

Chinese dragons, Dalek-like pagoda towers: Opera Australia's harbour-side production of Turandot did not shy away from oriental imagery, leading to a spectacular evening's entertainment.

While the billboard advertisements focussed on the presence of the ‘hit aria “Nessun dorma”’, there was much else to enjoy in this Turandot revival in Sydney: a lively, rich production and a strong cast headed by Lise Lindstrom and Yonghoon Lee.

Camels, fireworks, and a gigantic head of Nefertiti: the Sydney Harbour production of Aida is not short on spectacle. Among the cast, Latonia Moore is outstanding in the title role, with good support from Miljana Nikolic as Amneris and Michael Honeyman as Amonasro.

Simultaneously one of the most loved and most mocked operas in the canon, Il trovatore has some of Verdi’s catchiest melodies set to one of his silliest plots. Against the backdrop of a 15th-century Spanish war, a cast of nobles, gypsies, nuns and soldiers enact a drama which hinges on that hoariest of dramatic clichés: children swapped at birth.

Opera Australia pulled out all the stops for their latest production of Puccini’s Turandot: an excellent cast, fabulous choreography, amazing costumes and a great sense of drama all combined to make it a wonderful production at Sydney Opera House. The Opera Theatre is comparatively small by modern standards and is a very intimate venue in which to see an opera.

Italienischer Komponist, tschechisches Orchester und deutscher Chor. Verdis Messa da Requiem in der Münchner Philharmonie ist an diesem Abend ein europäisches Projekt.