Sydney Festival brings two innovative, site-specific performances to the harbour. An underrated tale of adultery and murder set on a Parisian barge, Il tabarro is the first part of Puccini’s Il trittico. Constantine Costi – never short of an idea – updates the action to Depression-era Sydney, staging it on The Carpentaria, a historic lightship built in 1917. Tickets are free, and there’s a livestream on Friday 12 January. (See page 81.) Night Songs at Coney Island is an exploration of childhood and lost innocence that travels across the harbour to Sydney’s iconic Luna Park. Sydney Philharmonia Choirs are joined by Peter Coleman-Wright and Cheryl Barker plus a chamber orchestra and children’s ensemble in Poulenc’s Sextet, Stravinsky’s Mass and Mahler’s poignant Kindertotenlieder.

Limelight Editor’s Choice

A nautical noir opera under the stars and on the harbour. Puccini’s one-act masterpiece (the first opera in II Trittico) is a darkly romantic tale of passion, desperation and heartbreak.

Il Tabarro will be staged aboard The Carpentaria, a historic lightship built in 1917 – the same year Puccini finished work on the composition. Innovative director Constantine Costi and his team are taking this brooding opera to an updated setting inspired by 1930s Depression-era Sydney. Conductor Simon Bruckard leads a cast of exceptional Australian talent and a live orchestra for an unmissable night.