Nearly 200 years after its premiere in Paris in 1825, Rossini’s grand musical showcase Il Viaggio a Reims finally makes its Australian debut in suitably lavish style while also having tremendous fun with its lightweight story of vacuous international elites. Opera Australia fills no less than 14 principal roles with fine, often fabulous singers who can work the production’s comedy too. Indeed, even the conductor contributed to the laughs in this wonderfully entertaining spectacular.

The cast of Il Viaggio a Reims. Photograph © Jeff Busby

Il Viaggio a Reims was commissioned as part of the festivities for the coronation of French king Charles X. The simple story – which was designed to celebrate the new monarch, showcase some of the greatest voices of the age, and establish Rossini’s genius in France – centres on numerous European noblemen and women on their way to the coronation in Reims. They gather at an inn, where their disagreements and romantic rivalries represent Europe’s fractured state during this era. When a lack of fresh horses prevent them from continuing to their destination, they decide to hold a feast during which both the king and the banqueters’ various...