Director swaps the wings for the stage in coming opera performance

LYSTER Opera director Daniel Sinfield will step from behind the scenes and onto the stage when the company’s acclaimed production of The Merry Wives of Windsor arrives in Geelong this month.

Sinfield joins the cast after one of the production’s tenors received a prestigious vocal award, sending him to Austria.

An opera singer by trade, Sinfield said stepping into a show he had spent months directing was both exciting and daunting.

The cast of this return season include nationally and internationally recognised vocalists and performers. Pictured: Michael Zuccala and Darcy Carroll. Photo: Phil Thompson.

“[The cast] have been so good at bringing this to life with me as the director and now suddenly they are my colleagues,” he said.

Lyster Opera’s production combines Otto Nicolai’s 1849 comic opera with Shakespearean English dialogue, using modern touches and subtitles for the German songs to make the work more accessible for Australian audiences.

“It is confusing; the language is old, the opera is in German,” Sinfield said.

“We want audiences to understand it, because if they don’t understand it, how are they going to enjoy it as we do?”

That philosophy sits at the heart of Lyster Opera, which was inspired by the vision of William Saurin Lyster to bring opera to audiences beyond the major cities.

The show combines the classic costuming, set and Shakespearean language with German songs, modern elements and English subtitles to create a unique theatre experience. Pictured: Teresa Ingrilli and Nicholas Beecher. Photo: Phil Thomson.

Today, the company tours productions across regional Victoria, balancing well-known works with more adventurous repertoire.

Sinfield said making opera accessible extended beyond the production itself to the ticket price, particularly as rising costs continue to challenge the performing arts sector.

Director Daniel Sinfield will join the cast after one of the production’s tenors received a prestigious vocal award, sending him to Austria. Photo: Henry Choo.

“There has to be another way, and this is our way of doing that – finding a way to still bring opera around the town but trying to make it affordable,” he said of Lyster Opera’s non-for-profit theatre model.

“At the end of the day, we are in a cost-of-living crisis… and we don’t want people to have to feel that they are really scraping the bottom of their purse in order to buy a ticket to a show.”

Lyster Opera’s The Merry Wives of Windsor will be performed on 25 July at the Courthouse Theatre.

Tickets are available via Humanitix.