OPERA: BLISS

Opera Australia’s much anticipated new work Bliss, based on the Peter Carey novel, premiered at the Opera House on March 12. The opera, in the pipeline for a decade, brings together many talented Australian artists, including internationally renowned composer Brett Dean, celebrated designer Brian Thomson and one of our best directors, Neil Armfield. Amanda Holden’s libretto does justice to the tale of Harry Joy, the advertising agency director who has a heart attack and becomes a different man with values that no longer suit his work, his friends or his family. Peter Coleman-Wright gives a robust performance as the distressed Harry who discovers that his wife (Merlyn Quaife) is having an affair with his friend Alex (Barry Ryan) and that daughter (Taryn Fiebig) is paying his son (David Corcoran) for her drugs with sexual favours. In despair, he locks himself away in a hotel suite where he meets call girl Honey B (Lorina Gore), the future love of his life. The brilliant set and LED image designs by Brian Thomson and the dramatic and compelling Brett Dean score, conducted by Elgar Howarth, make this a very modern opera. You may not walk out humming a favourite aria but you will relish the visual and musical richness.

Until Mar 30, Sydney Opera House, $95-350, opera-australia.org.au