Breathtakingly beautiful and inventive set, costumes, lighting and video design prime this new iteration of Rusalka to be a memorable experience even before the singing starts.

Then there’s the rapturous and high Romantic score swooping around a menagerie of fantastical big, lyrical vocal characters.

It’s a potent reminder this evening of how opera is a hybrid beast with real power to engage, occasionally overwhelm, and draw gasps of appreciation from the audience.

West Australian Opera’s Rusalka. Photo © West Beach Studio

Designer Charles Davis creates a truly gorgeous underwater realm for Rusalka and her sisters to float about in. The set is mirrored and but also translucent, and looking up to the ceiling with its water lilies in bloom, it’s easy to empathise with Rusalka’s emotional pull to the surface. It’s mesmerising.

With video design imagery of bodies diving into the water, bubbling waves and floating water nymphs at selected intervals, David Bergman truly immerses the audience in an evocative and sensual world, as does Paul Jackson’s moody and expert lighting design.

Rounding out this stunning collaborative design feat are Renée Mulder’s fabulous costumes, ranging from the Baron Harkonnen-like Water King to the sparkly...