After 30 years, Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia is about to return to Melbourne, starring internationally renowned coloratura soprano Helena Dix in a brand-new production by Gary Abrahams. The award-winning director of 33 Variations and Admissions talks to Limelight about taking on his first opera, and why he’s chosen to give it a 1970s setting that evokes the houses of Gucci and Versace.

Helena Dix and Gary Abrahams at Rippon Lea Estate – National Trust. Photo © Chris Parker

In your opinion, what is the difference between directing for spoken and sung word?

With spoken word the actors and I have more or less complete freedom to deliver the text however we choose. We control the pace, volume, tone and tempo of delivery. With sung word, the score dictates a lot of this. The actors have much stricter parameters to work within, and therefore I have to work with them adhering to the score’s demands.

Will your musical-theatre experience benefit you, or do you see opera as something altogether different?

While there are inherent similarities, I see opera as a very different art form, with its own tropes and compositional rules. Musicals are...