After a three-year overhaul, Melbourne’s State Theatre is finally open once again, and Opera Australia has wasted no time coming home down south with a one-off concert.

The Wagner Gala Concert was more serious music event (with no surtitles) than celebration, and there was a notable lack of local headliners for the revival of Victoria’s most significant performance space.

With no connection to it, German conductor Michael Güttler, British soprano Catherine Foster, Russian tenor Sergey Skorokhodov and Western Australian baritone James Clayton felt like strange choices to lead “our” theatre’s operatic housewarming.

Sergey Skorokhodov, Wagner Gala Concert 2026. Photo © Jeff Busby

When the concert opened with The Flying Dutchman overture, it was immediately apparent the revamped theatre’s acoustics are wonderfully clear and warm. That, plus the fact Orchestra Victoria were performing on stage rather than in the pit, meant these local representatives were heard to advantage. Out in full force, including two harps, they may never have sounded better.

Backed by a simple structure of burnished wood panels, the musicians were a mighty, cohesive conduit of the dramatic colour and texture of Wagner’s music. The strings in Tristan und Isolde’s prelude were meltingly lush, while Tannhäuser’s overture was an all-orchestra triumph of nuance and monumentality.

James Clayton, Wagner Gala Concert 2026. Photo © Jeff Busby

Clayton would be unfamiliar to most Melburnians, but surely left those at the Wagner Gala wanting more. He delivered the concert’s first aria, Die Frist ist um from The Flying Dutchman, with feet planted wide and brooding vocal expression matched by looks and gestures.

An assured baritone with dark honey tone and seamless legato, Clayton returned in the concert’s second half with a tender O du mein holder Abendstern from Tannhäuser.

Previously only seen on these shores in Victorian Opera’s Elektra concert of 2022, Foster didn’t live up to that memorable performance with her first Wagner Gala aria. Her next, Tristan und Isolde’s Mild und leise, came close with those signature strong, bright top notes and emphatic diction.

Catherine Foster, Wagner Gala Concert 2026. Photo © Jeff Busby

There was more of that to come in the concert’s second half, when Foster swapped her green velvet robe for a red satin one. The soprano didn’t bring much passion to the evening, however, most noticeably as she sang the program’s finale, Starke Scheite from Götterdämmerung. Where was the emotional fire in Brünnhilde’s climactic immolation aria?

While Foster stepped across the stage a few times during the concert, for Skorokhodov’s Australian debut it was a case of stand and deliver … and cough. His brief first-half aria was underdone, and the reason became increasingly apparent in the second.

In what should have been a highlight, he valiantly fought through several coughs during Lohengrin’s In fernem Land, while Morgenlich leuchtend from Die Meistersinger was an even greater struggle for the unfortunate singer. Let’s hope Skorokhodov can show what he’s got when the tenor returns to the State Theatre for Opera Australia’s 2027 Tannhäuser.

Perhaps it was such epic Wagnerian opera that the company had wanted to remind Melbourne of with this reopening of a theatre so well suited to it, from vast pit to the Southern Hemisphere’s largest stage.

Neither were a factor in this concert, however, and the dour program, which notably ended in death, was at odds with an occasion of celebration. Foster and Skorokhodov’s failure to sell their arias added to the concert’s solemn mood, as did the absence of collaborative singing.

Orchestra Victoria, Wagner Gala Concert 2026. Photo © Jeff Busby

Something like May’s Opera Australia 70th Anniversary Gala at the Regent Theatre would have been more appropriate, with its MC to lead the party, ensemble focus and all-Australian cast.

Where were the Victorian singers at this important occasion for the state’s opera lovers? Even if international stars Nicole Car and Danielle de Niese weren’t available, what about the likes of Siobhan Stagg or Simon Meadows?

Overall, the Wagner Gala Concert didn’t quite match the thrill of just stepping inside the State Theatre after so long, and seeing what’s changed (little that’s obvious).

Nevertheless, the best vocal moments and consistently splendid Orchestra Victoria delighted, prompting happy thoughts of fully staged opera returning here with Opera Australia’s 2027 season.