The Eighth Wonder review – Sydney Opera House hosts the world's first large-scale 'silent opera'

With a slight whiff of propaganda, the bubbly opera about Sydney’s most iconic building ends up upstaged – by the venue

The Eighth Wonder is billed as the world’s first large-scale silent opera, but let’s get something straight: watching Sydney Harbour’s latest alfresco extravaganza is far from a silent experience. This is pop-opera at its most bubbly. And it has the sound – big, brassy, and amped to the nines – to match.

First performed in 1995, this Australian-born opera, sung in English, relays the genesis of Sydney’s most iconic building. It is a tale stuffed with corrupt politicians, small-minded bureaucrats, ambitious performers, and one visionary architect.

Using the exterior of the Opera House as a stage is a stroke of genius. Despite the ever-present threat of downpour on opening night, the white shells rearing into the black sky provide a dazzling setting.

Be warned, however: this is not a production for opera purists.

It works much the same way as a silent disco. While the chorus and orchestra play live, squirrelled away within the bowels of the Opera House, the singers – sporting radio mics – perform in front of the audience on the great granite Monumental Steps. The two feeds are then combined and sent to viewers via noise-cancelling headphones.

The result is total, all-encompassing sound – a clever way to provide a more egalitarian outdoor experience for the 3,000-member strong audience. Everyone hears the exact same music: variables like seating or the wind don’t affect quality.

In many ways, then, The Eighth Wonder is a sound engineering triumph. Yet I found the headphones unsettling and distancing, as well as uncomfortably tight. Take them off and the pound of orchestral music collapses – all that is left are the singers’ small voices drifting into the night. Hearing it in its natural form is moving, but too often rawness and richness is lost.

Where The Eighth Wonder succeeds is in sheer spectacle. Giant scrunched-up paper-like balls, created from the material used for cargo covers, represent Opera House architect Jørn Utzon’s discarded blueprints. Animation and video on giant screens are used to further the story and explain the more complex elements of the design, without ever distracting from the drama.

Meanwhile, the makeshift outdoor stage made out of a series of white platforms, propelled along the steps by workmen in yellow overalls, is inspired. With big set pieces combined with more quiet moments, viewers are taken effortlessly from a Danish forest to a hot Aussie beach; from a suburban back yard, with a barbecue of sizzling sausages, to a stuffy royal event.

The opera itself, however, never reaches the heights of the great classics, and the airy-fairy spirits of Earth and Sky who flap around in flowing gowns at the start and end are distracting, naff and unnecessary.

Still, Danish tenor Adam Frandsen is convincing as the brilliant, if exasperating, architect who demands perfection at all costs. Gerry Connolly provides regal humour as the Queen. Providing the emotional soul of the play is young aspiring opera singer Alexandra (a wonderful Stacey Alleaume) who, with the opera house not yet open, is forced to travel to Europe to develop her career, returning triumphant to a celebrated homecoming once it is completed.

Central is Australia’s anxiety as a nation of immigrants who borrow from other countries. The Eighth Wonder tackles the rampant cultural cringe of the 1960s, and a perceived lack of sophistication. One politician scoffs that only Jews and “poofs” want an opera house, eliciting self-knowing chuckles from the audience. Punters complain that the proposed new building on Bennelong Point is just a waste of good parking space.

The Eighth Wonder, then, celebrates Australia’s arrival on the cultural world stage. This year the Opera House unveiled plans for the largest renovations in its history; it is telling that it has chosen to resurrect a drama that explicitly chastises the Opera House’s poor internal acoustics – a key part of the $200m plus revamp.

But the choice to stage it now gives the production an ever so faint whiff of propaganda. For all the talent on show, this is an opera welded to the building that inspired it – and it’s a tough benchmark. The Eighth Wonder never quite matches up to the Opera House’s astounding beauty, remaining both literally and artistically in its shadow.

The Eighth Wonder runs until 5 November at the Sydney Opera House forecourt

Contributor

Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
Sydney Opera House at 50: the stories behind the superstitions, sleepovers and scene-stealing moments
From Hugh Jackman’s black eye to ‘benevolent’ ghosts in the back seats, tour guides, security staff and stage managers guide us through five decades beneath the white sails

Steve Dow

08, Oct, 2023 @2:00 PM

Article image
From pop to classical to avant-garde: the 15 best Sydney Opera House shows to stream for free
The venue is releasing 50 archival films across the next two months, to celebrate its 50th year. Our editors and critics have selected the top picks

Sian Cain, Andrew Stafford, Michael Sun, Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen, Yvonne C Lam, Alyx Gorman, Steve Dow and Tim Byrne

04, Sep, 2023 @12:00 AM

Article image
Wozzeck review – startlingly original opera animated by Kentridge’s apocalyptic vision
Sydney Opera House
In a production that’s more art installation than traditional opera, the South African artist captures the cruelty of war

Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore

27, Jan, 2019 @1:41 AM

Article image
Sydney festival, Opera Australia and Rent to continue with opening nights as NSW Covid cases rise
Major productions will open within days at the Sydney Opera House, where masks aren’t mandatory

Elissa Blake

30, Dec, 2020 @4:58 AM

Article image
Ben Folds review – timeless tunes and paper planes at Sydney Opera House
The endearing showman could become an Elton John for the slacker generation

Jonno Seidler

01, Feb, 2018 @11:56 PM

Article image
Sydney Opera House goes Broadway with South Pacific

Opera Australia's artistic director Lyndon Terracini stages first musical at Opera Theatre to broaden audience appeal

Alison Rourke in Sydney

07, Aug, 2012 @9:00 PM

Article image
The Cure: Disintegration 30th anniversary shows to debut at Sydney Opera House
British rock band to play landmark 1989 album in full at Vivid Live festival in May

Steph Harmon

18, Feb, 2019 @11:54 PM

Article image
Lizzo's Sydney Opera House performance was as close to transcendent as pop can get | Nakkiah Lui
Songs of self-love and empowerment became anthems of solidarity in a show as cathartic as group therapy – with twerking

Nakkiah Lui

07, Jan, 2020 @12:44 AM

Article image
Gordi fills an empty Sydney Opera House with her magnetic presence and expansive songs
The ascendant musician channels the feeling of being isolated in a cavernous space in her livestreamed album launch

Shaad D'Souza

26, Jul, 2020 @2:15 AM

Article image
‘Better than we dared imagine’: Sydney Opera House unveils its ‘miracle’ new concert hall
After two years of renovations, a room once blighted by poor acoustics and outdated machinery can now accommodate musicians previously turned away, with a push of a button

Elissa Blake

01, Jul, 2022 @8:00 PM