Venturing into rarities of the operatic repertoire, Endangered Productions presents two works with words and music by 20th century composers Leonard Bernstein and Ferruccio Busoni.

Busoni’s Arlecchino and Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti are pocket-sized one-act productions, commenting remorselessly on the nature of relationships and material aspirations.

Directed by Christine Logan and supported by a substantial team of creatives and crew, the cast of 12 singers performs with an on-stage 14-piece orchestra conducted by Peter Alexander with costumes by Bianca De Nicola and sets by Zahra Babiae.

Ferruccio Busoni is more famous as a pianist, notably his transcriptions of J.S. Bach’s pieces for piano, than for his operas. In fact, he wrote four of them.

Arlecchino premiered in Zurich in 1917. Harlequin, the central character, comes from the Italian tradition of commedia dell’arte. He is witty and brilliance, mercurial and capricious. Busoni initially subtitled his manuscript eine Marionetten-Tragödie, a clue to the style of what he wanted to produce.

The four movements of Arlecchino are set in a street scene behind which is poised the tailoring shop of Ser Matteo del Sarto played by bass-baritone Ed Suttle, who wishes for nothing more than to be left alone to read Dante. As Arlecchino, Andy Leonard speaks his against a musical backing of Busoni’s entertaining score which satirises quotes from Mozart, Gluck and Wagner to ragtime.

Arlecchino directs the action and comments on proceedings, a master puppeteer, all the while seducing the silent Annunziata. Meantime, Arlechino’s wife, Colombina, played excellently by the triply-threatening Brea Holland (she can sing, act, dance – and pole dance as well), is pursuing her own distractions with Leandro, presented as an ageing Brian May-like rocker, played by tenor Damien Hall.

Without the benefit of a synopsis, the complex action is hard to follow. The text gets especially difficult to understand in the ensemble moments which also suffer from over-amplification, the reverb of which lingers for seconds after the singing has ceased. The intimacy of the venue, Busoni’s deliberately small orchestra and the fine backgrounds of the cast beg the question as to why amplification is needed at all.

The program, available via QR code has extensive biographies but little production or historical information. Moments of audience interaction provide some welcome humour.

Stand-out performances come from Brea Holland, Ziggy Harris as Abbate Cospicuo and Kerwin Baya as the humble donkey. Tenielle Thompson as Annunziata and Matthew Avery as Dottor Bombasto round out the ensemble. Bianca De Nicola’s costumes are vivid and handsomely add to the characterisations.

Ed Suttle, Damien Hall, Lesley Braithwaite, Cheryl Barker and Peter Coleman-Wright.

Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti is a more successful and polished presentation, although this too is weighed down by over-amplification. Opera royalty and real-life partners baritone Peter Coleman-Wright and soprano Cheryl Barker together bring the wealth of their global performing careers to their roles as Sam and Dinah, the married couple desperately trying to find renewed inspiration in their jaded relationship.

Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, the recent biopic on the life of Bernstein fired renewed interest in this brilliant polymath and triggered a forensic examination of his personal relationships. The title Trouble in Tahiti hints at struggles beneath a deceptively perfect veneer. One can only wonder what Bernstein’s wife, Felicia Montealegre, felt as Bernstein began to write this opera during their honeymoon, based on his parent’s marriage.

Trouble in Tahiti is deftly crafted in seven-scenes, narrating a day in the life of Sam and Dinah. Their son “Junior,” and other characters are presented in various degrees of invisibility. A chorus comprising soprano Lesley Braithwaite, Damien Hall and Ed Suttle provide a running commentary on the action. They sing saccharine-sweet, finger-clicking, smooth, tightly-knit harmonies, extolling the material aspirations and virtues of post-war America. De Nicola’s set portrays middle-class bliss with white picket fence, a patch of manicured lawn and a lace tablecloth. She cleverly sets the scene with a series of 1950s images on an easel as the trio sings its opening number.

As Dinah, Barker is all 1950s USA in cupcake dress, low heels and pearls. She fills her day with a session at her therapist and a lonely, escape to the cinema. Coleman-Wright as Sam, is immersed in career, finance, networking and ballgames. He is too busy playing baseball to attend Junior’s concert, which apparently Dinah’s has missed as well.

Barker is a picture of loneliness in her solo I was standing in a garden; the hula-inspired Island Magic is all sassy abandon. Coleman-Wright’s There is a law is machismo perfection. Bickering, remorse, ambition and bewilderment are all embedded in Bernstein’s clever and perceptive words and music – jazzy, with its syncopated harmonies, Gershwinseque clarinet lines and poignant arias. The opera ends on a note of optimism as Sam and Dinah attempt to “find their way back to the garden where they began.”

Bernstein & Busoni is at the Eternity Playhouse, Darlinghurst until 7 December.