On 8 January, 1994, an expectant crowd gathered at the Sydney Opera House for the premiere of Idomeneo directed by Moffatt Oxenbould. Many in the audience could still remember watching Joan Sutherland make her role debut as Elletra 15 years earlier in the very theatre that would one day bear her name.

“Here we go again,” or words to that effect, were heard throughout the auditorium as the curtain rose to reveal Carl Friedrich Oberle’s set design for La Clemenza di Tito in 1991.

For many of us in the audience, this would be the sixth Mozart opera given the “Drottningholm” treatment, first introduced by the late Göran Järvefelt and Oberle in their 1986 staging of The Magic Flute.

Fast-forward three decades and Opera Australia is still recycling scenery.

This time, it’s Michael Yeargan’s set for Werther, unveiled just three years after Oberle’s wooden floorboards made their first appearance. It is also being reused for this season’s staging of The Magic Flute.

John Longmuir as Arbace and Michael Schade as Idomeneo in Opera Australia’s Idomeneo. Photo © Keith Saunders

Why Mozart’s mythical opera hasn’t warranted a new build since 1979 is anyone’s guess....