Ahead of Opera Australia’s opening, the no-nonsense British director explains why Mozart matters.

It’s fair to say that Sir David McVicar doesn’t suffer fools gladly. The British opera director has a reputation for plain speaking, an at times intimidating directness, and a general sense of frustration with journalists who ask lazy, foolish questions. To top it off, the day we meet at the Opera Centre in Sydney’s Surry Hills he has a cold so bad he has to leave the room on a couple of occasions to cough his guts up. There’s a piece of paper on the table between us on which he’s written: “I’m sick”. So I begin our interview with a degree of trepidation.

McVicar is back in the country following last year’s praised production of Don Giovanni for part two of his Opera Australia Mozart project, The Marriage of Figaro. Kicking off the interview with a few opening questions about parallel themes shared by the two operas, I soon realise I’m in the dangerous lazy, foolish territory and my reward is a deal of short shrift for not coming to the point. McVicar...