Hitting the High Cs: Il Tabarro at the Sydney Festival
Image: Image- Supplied
Sydney’s National Maritime Museum is not a usual setting for an opera but now the Sydney Festival has taken the leap and is using it to stage the Victorian Opera’s presentation of Il Tabarro (The Cloak), the first act of Puccini’s masterpiece Il Trittico.
First staged in 1918 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, this romantic tale of desperation and heartbreak was originally set on a barge in Paris.
This Australian exclusive production is taking that hint and ramped it up to set it aboard the Carpentaria, an unmanned lightship that was built at Sydney’s Cockatoo Island Dockyards in 1917, the year the Puccini finished writing the opera.
In this new version, the scene has moved from the Parisian river port to 1930s Depression Sydney and the museum will be transformed into a world redolent with history, song and storytelling that will tug at the heartstrings.
Conductor Simon Bruckard will lead a cast of Australian singers and a live orchestra in front of an audience of around 800 for each night’s free but ticketed event from 9-13 January.
The event also gives the audience the chance to enjoy fine food and wine during the performance with a seperate antipasti platter which needs to be pre-ordered.
Il Tabarro will be live-streamed on Friday 12 as part of the Sydney Festival’s AT HOME Digital program.
Where: National Maritime Museum,
2 Murray Street, Pyrmont
When: 9-13 January
Bookings: Sydney Festival
