Sydney Harbour Phantom writeup
So I'm glad I did watch the livestream bootleg of this bad boy in 2025. While it was spoilery, I think it was nice going in knowing what to expect and that let me relax and enjoy it and look forward to the most bonkers parts.
It's also so wonderful that in 2022 on their first, very wet run, I chose to see the production in the Opera house, not outside and wet. This time it's lovely and dry!
I will note that when they did it for the first time in 2022, I had more purist opinions. Something along the lines of "But the Phantom lives inside an opera house, not outside. I want to see it inside, where he lives". I see this younger version of me, I offer her love and forgiveness. She is so wrong and is committed to denying herself joy. But it was the year following the pandemic, so she was tired and overwhelmed. I forgive her.
Anyway, below the cut is my many disjointed thoughts on Handa Opera on the Harbour's Phantom of the Opera
The set is perfect, no notes, I'm obsessed. We were in the far left section (B) which I was worried was going to be shit sightlines, but I could not spend more than $250 per ticket because I need to pay for a goddamn Sydney mortgage. But no, Section B was great, great sight, the only issue was we couldn't see Buquet die. More on that later.
I like the slightly brechtian chairs for the auction. Nice and spooky
Chandelier is wife. So good. She's so big, she's so majestic, the way the crane sweeps her across the stage is delightful. Julian described it as a lady in big skirts getting up off the floor
It's also so fun before the show starts because you're hanging out eating dinner and then you see the crane move the chandelier across the harbour, over the stage and place it in its auction position. You get to spend so much time looking at her and enjoying her and all the hard work everyone put in!
There's something so satisfying hearing Carlotta's opening notes on the Sydney harbour, looking at the opera house. It's perfect.
Carlotta gives the severed head a little kiss after her initial "Rome!" and that was chef's kiss. This Carlotta is perfect, she's so funny and her voice is glorious.
Amy's Christine is not a dancing Christine so she's in the chorus and it's nice when that happens - more true to the book and how operas work. (No shade to Dancing Christines. I love all Christines)
Still not sold on these costumes, they're too pastel for Hannibal and this designer likes pink way too much imo
I always feel like the opera boxes are kinda plonked awkwardly on the stage (I know, I'm blaspheming against Maria Björnson, a crime, but it's just a bit 80s and dated nowadays). I like how this set integrates them nicely.
Palm tree hit Carlotta lol
Every time the grand piano slid down the stage I was certain it was careening out of control, ready to land on an audience member. Nope, it has a spot it stops in, it's very clever
This Reyer is a sassy and stressed, I love it
Leferve fucking bolts, just runs screaming out of the opera house. He has to run the entire length of the audience stalls, before reaching the gangway back to the backstage area. It's incredible.
I've seen Amy Manford before and her Christine is pitch perfect. Her voice is glorious, and I love her acting choices. Just a classic, beautiful Christine.
God, people have to run on this stage. It's an enormous space so to leave and re-enter a scene it's so far! And it's tilted towards us, so going upstage literally is walking up an incline. So many people have running exits but instead of running a few metres to a wing, it's like a full ten metre run to proper backstage.
So for example, poor Raoul has his Little Lotte scene, leaves, bolts up the damned stairs, waits for the end of the Mirror scene, then down the stairs again and runs after the dressing room to do his final "Christine? Angel!" moment, barely with any breath. Amazing.
Every performer's step count would be insane
Honestly the only points I'm going to take off this production is the hokey screen mirror that they do screensaver-ass visuals on. It's like a nintendo 64. It's too much. Please stop. Just a normal trick mirror is fine.
Otherwise I love the little rotating lair/dressing room set it's so clever clogs and I love that there's a Louis Philippe room
Whole first lair is dope. Love the stairs. Love the boat. Love the staging. I'm not sold on this costume designer but I love her outfits for the Phantom - her menswear is actually great. I like his feathered hat and glittery cloak.
As stated on my initial posts, the 22 year old is perfect as Phantom. Very weird this happened but he's out of control. Really sad puppy, manic erratic crazy phantom. Could not tell he was so young, to the point that it was disconcerting. His voice is UNREAL. What the fuck.
Also obsessed with the shiny mask. It's so Steve Harley of them
Still no crawling in the Stranger than you dreamt it blocking and I will riot. CRAWL BOY! Otherwise he's appropriately wet and miserable love to see it
End of STYDI Christine reaches out and strokes his face before handing him the mask which is a crazy choice. Like guys, let's end the show here? Compassion achieved!
Love that whenever the Phantom voices the OG Notes he appears in his little hidey hole in the tower, like a creepy little sneak
Oh also the towers of speakers all over the space are used so well when the Phantom bounces his voice around, super creepy and unnerving, very into it, very sexy
The managers are great! Very funny, good vibes all around
Madame Giry's actress is doing this very heaving sort of speaking voice and it's a Choice and I respect it but it's also a lot
Prima Donna - I really like how Carlotta hits all the managers in the face with her mink stole. Awesome
Il Muto starts and Christine is just kicking back as Serafimo on the bed and I continue to look DISRESPECTFULLY at breeches-role Christine. I am HERE for Breeches-Christine. Further thoughts? Go read my lesbian Phantom fic because BREECHES CHRISTINE. Put the girl in pants and give her some sass.
Because it's an actual opera company doing this means having a proper bass who can do Don Attilo justice and it was awesome
This costume designer likes pink too much!
Unfortunately we could not see Buquet's hanging body! Which is ridiculous because the seats were $250 per person and never mentioned obstructed sightlines. I think if I can't see a major plot-point hanging dead guy, I get a discount. WTF?
Also it's funny because they did a trigger warning thing announcement at the beginning saying there's a hanging. Guys you promised me a hanging. GIVE ME THE HANGING.
I don't love Christine's rooftop outfit because TOO MUCH PINK
Raoul is very lovely. Gorgeous voice, played it nobly but sweetly, not too brash (I like my Raouls sweet). He's also indigenous which is awesome. Hopefully Opera Australia was on their best behaviour this time
(as an aussie who attended a fucktonne of operas by OA in the 2010s due to a boyfriend's special interest, I have a lot of opinions on OA and not many good ones)
The set design is so fantastic and everytime they use the stairs for anything at all I'm happy. So Phantom doing his reprise on the stairs above Christine and Raoul was perfect
Also, my favourite sort of reprise - he starts out so sad :(((( just the saddest, wettest little guy, so hurt. And then builds to anger and the chandelier drops. Perfection.
The way the chandelier swings in on the crane is CRAZY. It has to drop slowly but the swing is nuts. And then fireworks! Which is fun!
At intermission I had to get up and get a hot chocolate because I was frozen solid! It was probably 15 degrees but the wind off the harbour made it so much worse and I wore a slinky evening gown with a wrap and I was a FOOL. But I looked great. And because it's outside the chairs are plastic, which just gives you no warmth at all. I would have hired a seat cushion so fast if that was an option (they do that at the globe).
Everyone else was frozen too and so many people bought the merch Phantom blankets and wrapped themselves in it. I did not because I don't like that cheap velour shit.
Ok second act is what I had been waiting for the entire night. I did not tell Julian much about this production but especially did not tell him about Flying-Chariot-Red-Death. It's too amazing
But first, I love the managers in their Bear costumes. I remain obsessed with the missing Leroux chapter the Magic Envelope, and the managers being dressed identically at the masquerade, but not knowing who the other is, is a reference to it I cannot ignore!
Masquerade was meant to be performed on this set, under the night sky, with fireworks punctuating the beat. This is a perfect staging of Masquerade.
Except I don't like Christine's boring-ass dress. Baby blue, really?
But things I love? The little bang with their cymbals and drums, the costumes are mostly very fun, the use of the STAIRS, the choreography is really fun, the colours are so good. This whole show was built around this staging of Masquerade and it works.
Ok flying Red Death. I forgot how fast the crane swoops him in! I was worried for a moment they were doing it or we wouldn't be able to see it but no, it's just FAST. Which is amazing. Why is he on a chariot? I presume the conversation was something like this "We want the Red Death to fly in. But on what? He can't fly like Iron Man, that would be silly. Can't use a boat, he already has a boat. What about a…chariot???". Incredible. Absolute galaxy brain idea. I would pay money to just watch that chariot over and over again.
This Christine really goes for the "trance" concept in Why so Silent and I respect that
Red Death just FLIES AWAY after Why So Silent and ITS SO GOOD
As I wanted, my husband just screamed and gasped at the entire Flying Red Death thing and it made my night
Notes 2 is great but I was so cold at this point. I could no longer use my opera glasses because I was shaking!
Christine's rehearsal/wishing dress was so boring and I hated it. Why was it mauve and grey? Why was it devoid of character? I am not committed to only replica productions, but Maria Björnson did nail Christine's Wishing dress and it's the only time we see Christine in her own day clothes, so it's important to convey her character properly. I did not like this, it was so washed out under the lights and the purple cloak was ugly. Hate it!
When Christine ends Twisted and runs offstage, once again, she's having to run like ten metres and I feel for her
Rolling piano of doom scared me again!
I love that the rehearsal chairs turn around to become gravestones. Clever stagecraft, I'm a slut for good interesting stagecraft
Amy's Wishing was beautiful. She is a wonderful Christine and I'm so happy to see her again!
I am a slut for Wandering Child as a Trio so this really hit for me
I believe this Raoul. I am making heart-eyes at him
I LOVE the statue pyrotechnics for this graveyard. The statue's eyes spew sparks. It's terrifying and delightful and stupid. Love it!
Lyle's phantom sounded so sad on his "Don't go!" dude then don't shoot fire at them?
SECURE! The stream truly has broken my brain
Ok when I watched the stream version of 2022's production, I wasn't sold on the Don Juan staging. This time I totally was. It's different, but I kinda liked it - it allowed the focus to truly be on the Phantom and Christine - highlighting them as these two debauched weirdos amongst disapproving courtiers/staff. It's an interesting way of doing it.
Also, first time I saw it, I didn't like Christine's Aminta dress but this time I liked it. Which is interesting! I have an inherent aversion to red on white with evening gowns but once I got past that, I liked the baroque-ness. Flounces.
Another hot take: I've never liked the original Don Juan grim reaper cloak. It's the most obvious thing trying not to be obvious, of all time, I understand the problem of this scenario (we want no one to know it's the Phantom, including Christine, until late in the song. However, he's very recognisable and a mask is literally part of his look. How do you disguise a guy who is always seen in a mask???). It's a really tricky scene to stage properly, probably because it's kind of a ridiculous scenario in the first place. The grim reaper cloak always just seemed so unsexy, creepy (not in a good way) and so goddamned obvious. "Gee who could this possibly be???" BUT I do think this production's solution, having him in a more period-appropriate cloak and big fuckoff hat, was more effective! And it didn't look as silly as the big hat in the Italian production. Still a real problem child for staging imo
I liked the round table this time - the way they were able to cat-and-mouse around it was really compelling. And I like her throwing the chair at him, the way he easily catches it. Hot.
I have no idea how handsy he got with Christine in this version versus the very handsy stream we watched. I was sitting at an angle so the Phantom's back was to me, so it was hard to see!
Feels mean to make a 22 year old get handsy with her
Couldn't see Piangi's dead body - one must assume he was napping
Down once more in the moat boat with the fire was great and he was so mean. Probably the angriest we ever see him.
Tearing the overdress off is like, right on the cusp of awful Phantom behaviour's I'll allow, and mostly I'll allow it because the costume change is quite clever! Nifty way to get Christine from Aminta to Wedding dress
Final lair was excellent! All the emotions were there, Lyle's Phantom was so upset, more upset than angry (still angry of course). He really walked that line.
Kiss was great, no notes
When she comes back, he is so happy and confused to see her, then he doesn't sing "Christine I love you" until she's walking away and she pauses and it all was very sad, broke my heart.
Lyle's final line was perfection. How is this 22 year old so good???????? His emotional range is crazy and his vocal range is out of control. Excuse me!
Hokey screen mirror with weird Phantom image on it then shattering at the end was dumb, hate that. Just have a normal mirror! Stop overthinking things.
Meg doesn't put on pants to go to the lair. Interesting.
The end!
I felt so bad for the cast and crew because outside, applause just never sounds particularly thunderous. Like people were obviously clapping, a huge crowd of people applauding, but it just dissipates with no walls to bounce off. I whooped and cheered for every single bow, ensemble up, because I wanted them to hear it! Lots of people were cheering and screaming. I hope they know we love them!
Love that they brought the orchestra onstage for bows! And the crew who have CRAZY JOBS
Overall, Sydney Harbour Phantom is a very unique and fantastic production. It's fully it's own thing and I love that. I'm a big fan of Amy Manford's Christine and Jake Lyle's Phantom (will never stop being impressed with this small 22 year old child). The set is perfect, the costumes have some duds and the flying Red Death is the best thing ever invented. I really hope they do it again, it's such a good choice for Handa Opera on the Harbour.
If you're going, bring a jacket or three!
