Melbourne Opera’s growing ambition has been particularly evident in its Wagner productions, most notably the 2023 Ring Cycle in Bendigo.

Staging epic quasi-comedy Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building is the company’s latest bold and well executed step up, which completes its Wagner to-do list.

The UNESCO World Heritage site is an unexpected opera venue, but with a shortage of spaces suitable for large-scale productions in Melbourne at the moment, companies have been forced to find alternatives.

After Opera Australia’s failed experiment with the Tennis Centre last year, I settled in to the Royal Exhibition Building for Meistersinger’s opening matinee with slight trepidation. Built for the 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition, its history as an important late 19th-century performance venue has largely been forgotten.

Trepidation turned to delight, however. The venue proved to be an asset, acoustically and especially from a visual-design perspective, for Suzanne Chaundy’s production featuring a talented all-Australian cast.

Melbourne Opera’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Photo supplied

It’s presented on a stage constructed under the building’s cathedral-like dome, with temporary seating raked along one long wing of the cruciform floorplan.

Andrew Bailey’s rudimentary, open-structured set encourages the audience to...