Underwater Opera Announced for Sydney Festival 2014

How does an underwater opera work? Is it through air pockets? Scuba gear? Gillyweed? All your questions will be answered and then forgotten in the majesty of Dido & Aeneas, the Sydney Festival's first big 'get' for 2014, announced today.

First performed in 2005, the work is from Berlin dance-theatre guru and former Schaubuhne artistic director Sasha Waltz and her company, and has been much acclaimed in its performances across Europe. The Australian exclusive performance will mark the first time the show will have toured to the Asia-Pacific. That delay may have something to do with the stage design that definitely breaks the standard baggage allowance. The first part of the show is a dance that takes place inside a 7500L tank. The opera then unfolds in a dry-land spectacle with 60 performers that Neues Deutchsland called "in the best sense overwhelming".

In the vein of last year's Semele Walk, Dido & Aeneas combines exquisite dance, costumes, singing, music and stagecraft to tell a passionate love story. By Henry Purcell, the Baroque score was described by festival director Lieven Bertels as having "topped the emo charts for almost 350 years now". It's performed on stage by renowned German chamber orchestra Akademie fur Alte Musik, who will play on rare Baroque instruments that sometimes have to be sourced locally so as to avoid the strain of travel.

The Sydney Festival is your main chance in the year to see big-deal international productions, and Dido & Aeneas is one big, awe-inspiring deal.

Dido & Aeneas is on at the Sydney Lyric Theatre from 16-21 January. Tickets go on sale today at noon from the Sydney Festival website.