Striding on the stage, looking rather dapper, Lotte Betts-Dean tells the audience in ACO’s Pier 2/3 that she’s got a Big Idea.

She’s bursting to share it – physically, she can barely restrain it – but as a drifting synth pad gives way to a stretch of intriguing modernist opera writing, she becomes more and more tangled in that moment between thinking and doing. Even with reassurance from her backing band,  she’s stuck among piles of pros and cons lists and can’t bring herself to spit it out. Is it a creative project? A new calling? Will she cut a bob?

Kaylie Melville, Lotte Betts-Dean and Gemma Kneale in The Big Idea. Photo supplied

The Big Idea is Melbourne art music ensemble Rubiks Collective’s present to its east coast audience for its 10th anniversary. Composed by London-based Aussie Matthew Shlomowitz with words from Vid Simoniti, the work’s an hour-long, oddball ‘micro-opera’ that celebrates the rise (and fall, not for lack of trying) of creativity and ambition.

Betts-Dean is brilliant in the role; humour, aplomb and dexterity abound. Donning a lab coat and slapping on a pair of green rubber gloves, she bravely...