Lyndon Terracini presents a tale of two operatic titans in two cities.

Opera Australia has revealed its 2013 line-up, bookended by major festivals dedicated to opera’s two birthday boys: Verdi in Sydney, and Wagner in Melbourne.

Following on from this year’s Mozart summer festival (The Magic Flute, Così fan tutte, The Marriage of Figaro) artistic director Lyndon Terracini today announced a quartet of Verdi operas celebrating the Italian master’s bicentenary. Sydney’s summer season opens on January 16 with a new production of Un ballo in maschera (A Maked Ball) presented by Sydney Festival and staged by renegade Spanish theatre and acrobatic troupe La Fura dels Baus, last scene in Australia for the 2010 Adelaide Festival in Ligeti’s fantastical opera Le Grand Macabre.

Terracini says that the gravity-defying group has special needs: “The set is pretty amazing and we’ve got a special grid that has to be built, with motors to lift and lower scenery.” He added that the world-premiere production is a joint commission partnering with European houses including La Monnaie in Brussels.

Opera Australia’s traversal of Verdi continues with Elke Neidhardt’s Il trovatore, the composer’s final, comic masterpiece Falstaff with baritone Warwick Fyfe as the eponymous dolt; La Forza del...