Performer: Matthew Marshall

A rare 17th-century English Baroque spectacular, designed to delight the Restoration crowd, is given a contemporary twist in Sydney. 

Yaron Lifschitz mesmerises from the opening tableaux’s row of candles in his Purcell staging for Opera Australia, featuring Circa, a Brisbane-based circus company. 

Director Simon Phillips takes the opportunity to reshape the setting of Rossini's comic opera to modern-day New Zealand.