Dido & Aeneas

13 – 29 March 2025

In the Joan Sutherland Theatre

Opera Australia

Opera

Exhilarating acrobatics meet stunning voices in this thrilling new production of a timeless love story.

A new benchmark for opera production in Australia.

Limelight

Useful information:

A passionate love story. A hero bound by fate. A lover left behind.

Dido and Aeneas is a love story for the ages. Combining exhilarating acrobatics and extraordinary music, this production is an opera for today.

Aeneas is a hero caught between his destiny and desire. Dido is the woman he must leave behind. For these star-crossed lovers, fate and romance are on a collision course.

Purcell’s early opera gave the world one of the most poignant scores ever written, and laid the foundation for every opera that came after.

Now, experience the power of Dido & Aeneas in a new production featuring jaw-dropping physical stunts from Circa’s talented ensemble alongside stunning voices, including homegrown opera stars Anna Dowsley and Nicholas Jones.

Presented by Opera Australia

Artist information

Conductor  Erin Helyard (March 13, 15, 22, 25, 29), Chad Kelly (March 18, 20)
Director & Stage Designer  Yaron Lifschitz
Costume Designer   Libby McDonnell
Lighting Designer  Matthew Marshall
 

Dido/Sorceress  Anna Dowsley
Aeneas  Nicholas Jones
Belinda  Jane Ede

Opera Australia Orchestra
Opera Australia Chorus
Circa Ensemble

Plan your visit

You may also like

Carmen

7 Aug – 19 Sep 2025

Take an adrenaline-pumping ride through lust, jealousy and spectacle in this bold new production of an opera classic. When Carmen meets Don José, sparks fly. She won’t give up her freedom, and Don José won’t give up his girl. Their smouldering passion sets the stage for tragedy. This visceral opera is thrilling from the moment the curtain rises and the orchestra races away with the overture. It features the famous Toreador song, the Habanera and moving Flower song.

  • Opera
  • Opera Australia

The Marriage of Figaro

31 Jul – 27 Aug 2025

A chaotic whirlwind of mistaken identities makes the wedding day of Figaro and Susanna a lesson in hilarity. With a witty, fast-moving libretto and hum-along melodies, Mozart’s classic is a lesson in hilarity. It’s Figaro and Susanna’s wedding day, but Count Almaviva is determined to win Susanna for himself. In one crazy day of disguises, duplicity, desire and utter madness, the fiancés must foil the philandering noble’s seductive advances.

  • Opera
  • Opera Australia
A bearded man picks away and glares at a wedding cake with a happy couple in period costume at the top.

The Sleeping Beauty

21 Nov – 17 Dec 2025

Ten years after its spectacular premiere, David McAllister’s opulent production of The Sleeping Beauty returns to whisk you away into a magical realm of fairies and spells, good versus evil and a royal romance. Accompanied by Tchaikovsky’s enchanting score, The Sleeping Beauty is a dreamlike vision, evoking ballet’s golden era with traditional choreography and extravagant designs. The gilded set stands alongside over 300 bespoke costumes, wigs and fairy wings, designed by the award-winning Gabriela Tylesova.

  • Dance
  • The Australian Ballet

Checking availability