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https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/mar/04/perth-festival-opera-mozart-marriage-figaro-in-ikea>
"It’s Sunday and I’m in a suburban Ikea on the verge of tears. Perhaps this is
not so surprising – who among us hasn’t approached emotional breakdown
navigating the labyrinthine homewares store? But these are tears of joy. And
no, it’s not because I’ve nabbed one of the cult-status Djungelskog plushies;
it’s because of the five people singing at me from two metres away.
I’m in the outdoor plants and furniture section, watching
The Marriage of
Figaro – or a version of it, in which Figaro and his bride-to-be, Susanna,
work in floor sales and their philandering boss is the store manager. It’s
probably the last place I’d expect to discover the sublime beauty of Mozart’s
opera. Half an hour earlier, my fellow audience members and I – who were
emailed the secret location 24 hours earlier – were eating meatballs and mash
in the canteen.
This is
Secret Opera, a project by West Australian Opera that brings
canonical and rare works to unusual places, including, in the past, an
abandoned theatre and a prison. The night before, I saw Philip Glass’s take on
Franz Kafka’s absurdist, nightmarish novel
The Trial, performed in a former
Flight Centre office in a shopping mall – the latest project by Lost and Found
Opera. Both were part of this year’s Perth festival, which under its artistic
director, Anna Reece, is continuing to use the city’s existing and abandoned
spaces in creative ways.
Secret Opera and
The Trial are part of a broader shift in opera worldwide
towards non-traditional venues – think Wagner in a Detroit parking garage;
Shostakovich in a Manchester nightclub. In recent years, Opera Australia has
staged Puccini’s one-act opera
Il Tabarro on a century-old lightship in
Sydney Harbour, Bizet’s
Carmen in the former industrial precinct of Cockatoo
Island, and Puccini’s
Tosca on a tennis court – as well as their annual
outdoor productions as part of Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour.
There are also smaller companies entirely devoted to staging operas in strange
places. Lost and Found’s past productions have taken audiences to a suburban
Italian social club, an aquatic centre and a disused timber mill. Brisbane’s
Underground Opera uses caves, abandoned mines and aeroplane hangars. WA’s
Freeze Frame has staged operas in a former prison and performed “highlights”
concerts from flatbed trucks."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
