Madama Butterfly – Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour

I played a major role in the site lighting design for Madama Butterfly at Opera Australia’s Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, working in that setting alongside director Àlex Ollé.

Lighting the site, not the stage

The brief covered the site rather than the performance: the onsite restaurants, the bars, the entrances and the surrounding trees. These are the spaces an audience occupies before and after the opera and between acts, and on an open-air site they carry much of the experience of the event.

An immersive setting

The work helped create an immersive atmosphere that complemented Puccini’s tragic masterpiece against the iconic backdrop of Sydney Harbour.