British director Netia Jones has yet to rehearse in Sydney’s Roslyn Packer, but she has already checked it out for her upcoming Pinchgut Opera production of Henry Purcell’s late career ‘semi-opera’ The Fairy-Queen.

The venue’s reputation as a theatre that can accommodate cutting edge projection technology is one of the main attractions for Jones, whose visionary approach to making opera goes hand in hand with the use of high-tech visuals.

“I can already see that it’s ideal for what we want to achieve,” Jones tells Limelight.

Netia Jones. Photo supplied

“We couldn’t stage a show like this at City Recital Hall, that’s for sure. We need a black space and the ability to project. But the Roslyn Packer is also intimate for a house of its size, beautifully designed. I know that Kip Williams did his first Picture of Dorian Gray there, so there’s already a little bit of digital-theatre history in the walls.”

Jones has worked at the intersection of opera, theatre and video for much of her career. “When I started, using video in performance was seen as a novelty. Now it’s just another tool for theatre-making, which is how it...