Vivaldi is best known today for his orchestral works; who doesn’t know at least some of The Four Seasons? But he was also very active in the baroque opera scene, claiming to have written 90 operas, though only around 50 have been identified and only 21 survive.

Thanks to Pinchgut Opera, Sydney audiences now have the chance to see one of his final operas, Farnace. It’s the fourth Vivaldi opera the company has performed – after Juditha Triumphans in 2007, Griselda in 2011, and Bajazet in 2015 – and the first time it has been staged in Australia.

Christopher Lowrey as the antihero Farnace. Photograph © Brett Boardman

And what a glorious evening it was, combining ravishing music with virtuosic vocal performances and an intelligent, contemporary production. It’s a piece that could so easily flounder if poorly staged, given the limitations of the libretto by Antonio Lucchini, but here the production soars on every level, sending you home exhilarated.

Farnace is widely considered one of the best scores from Vivaldi’s later period of operatic writing. First performed in 1727 in Venice, it proved very popular and a revised version was staged in...