A night at the Sydney Opera

The outdoor site plays host to many world-acclaimed events like Puccini's Madama Butterfly, which featured spectacular stage design. James Morgon / China Daily

Opera on the harbor

Multimedia play has charm of old film

Injured dancer to return to stage

What's more unique than opera in the house is opera outside it, with the world-recognizable edifices as the backdrop? For three weeks in March and April, the heartbreaking tale of Puccini's Madama Butterfly was staged on Sydney Harbor. It is a temporary stage built on the water, with the 3,000 seats by the shore facing the Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.

For a brief moment when Cio-Cio-San runs atop a building to watch the incoming ship of her husband, I could almost believe this was the Nagasaki harbor, the setting for the story.

The wedding scene in Act 1 is punctuated by real fireworks lighting up the night sky. Curtains flutter in the real wind, suggestive of the pulsating heart of the female protagonist.

Unlike some outdoor events, the stage is reasonably within the distance of observation by the 3,000 audience members. The agony of love and longing is palpable not only in the voice, but also in visible facial expressions.

Japanese soprano Hiromi Omura delivers an emotionally intense performance as the young geisha who foolishly places all her heart in Pinkerton.

The production team of La Fura dels Baus, hotly in demand the world over, put some nice touches in its design, such as the rising moon and sun, and also a couple of unconventional twists that could be subversive. For example, Butterfly wears a T-shirt with an American flag on it for the entirety of the last two acts, which may have brought the character up to date, but could have turned her into a kind of Valley girl or a Southeast Asian woman in an unsubtle attempt to woo American tourists.

Anyway, the opera performance is just the highlight of an immersive experience, from the decor of the ticket booth and the restaurant, to the ornaments along the path leading to the seating area, that is traditionally Japanese. This is the third year of Handa Opera on Sydney Harbor, now safely ensconced as the cultural event that should not be missed when you are in Sydney.

Of course, not everything that wafts over Sydney Opera House is pouring-your-heart-out arias. One can find all kinds of performances to every taste. A few years ago, Cate Blanchett was headlining A Streetcar Named Desire in this city, which thematically auspicated her Oscar-winning role in Blue Jasmine.

If Sydney Opera House is a jewel case, why not enjoy the jewel inside it, as the old Chinese saying goes.