Even the weather comes to the party as Phantom goes large and wins big

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
Opera Australia, March 27
Until May 3
Mrs Macquarie’s Point
Reviewed by JOYCE MORGAN
★★★★½

Down jackets mingled with dinner jackets as patrons arrived amid rain, wind and unseasonable cold.

It seemed the Phantom was about to cast a stormy curse over this outdoor production.

Yet by the time that thrilling opening riff thundered out, the skies had cleared.

It was the start of a night of theatrical magic – an inspired production to equal the splendour of the harbour backdrop.

Much of its impact lies in Gabriela Tylesova’s ravishing, imaginative design that combines the grand and the intimate.

A tower of ornate theatre boxes and a broken proscenium arch are at one side of the stage, with an enormous staircase across the width. The famous chandelier dangles above the stage to the right. Tylesova’s costumes are a riot of colour, sparkle and excess.

Yet this is a dark interior drama – or melodrama – as the deformed, mask-wearing Phantom who stalks a 19th-century Parisian opera house becomes obsessed with a young singer, Christine.

This “angel of music” reveals himself as quite a devil: a manipulator, murderer and something of an incel living in a grand gothic equivalent of his parents’ basement – a subterranean lair beneath the Paris Opera.

It’s a lair reached here not by a foggy lake but a burning ring of fire, and it works beautifully.

When the chandelier falls, it does so gently but is accompanied by that Opera on the Harbour set piece – fireworks.

This is a return of the 2022 Opera on the Harbour production. Simon Phillips again directs Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 40-year-old musical with energy and style, and it is accompanied by Simone Sault’s elegant choreography.

Sound quality is exceptional as musical director Guy Simpson conducts the orchestra concealed beneath the stage. Shelly Lee’s sound design meant the Phantom’s voice was heard at times from different directions, amplifying a menacing sense of his omnipresence.

The famous riff is repeated at key points and its shiver-inducing power is undiminished – even if Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters reckons Lloyd Webber took it from the band’s 1971 track Echoes.

Jake Lyle’s rich baritone delivers a Phantom full of menace, while eliciting sympathy for his damaged, diabolical soul. This is a compelling professional debut from the 22-year-old.

He is well-matched with Amy Manford’s Christine, who has sung the role internationally. Her vocal clarity conveys the innocence of the young woman wrestling with dark desires.

A dashing, dynamic Jarrod Draper as Christine’s suiter Raoul completes this love triangle.

Notable in the supporting cast are Debora Krizak as Madame Giry, the intimidating ballet mistress, and Jayme Jo Massoud as Christine’s friend Meg.

As the comic duo Firmin and Andre, Brent Hill and Martin Crewes bring a Gilbert & Sullivan humour to their witty patter.

With its bombast and histrionics, this musical feels better suited to this vast setting than shoehorned into the Opera House stage as it was four years ago.

This 40th-anniversary production is the finest Phantom and Opera on the Harbour to date. On a potentially turbulent night, all the elements, including meteorological, came together.

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