Opera Australia has announced its 2026 Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour – a return season of The Phantom of the Opera.

Celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2026, Phantom will be directed by Simon Phillips, who returns having helmed the production in 2022. Designed by Phillips’ regular collaborator Gabriela Tylesova and lit by Nick Schlieper, it was the first outdoor production of the musical since its original staging.

The Phantom of the Opera, Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, 2022. Photo © Prudence Upton

Reviewing that production’s opening night, Limelight’s Jo Litson was impressed by its visual impact:

“The audience gasped on opening night as flames suddenly flared across the footlights and the gondola in which the Phantom takes Christine across the subterranean lake appeared and moved along a moat at the front of the stage. The Masquerade scene is also dazzling. Rather than the cast moving down the staircase at the start of the number as in the original production, Phillips builds to that moment, giving it even more impact.”

Less impressive was the show’s iconic chandelier crash, which Litson reported as landing in “slow, juddering fashion”.

The...