This Spring, The Phantom of the Opera returns to the spectacular outdoor stage of Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, launching global celebrations for the musical’s 40th anniversary. Opening night on 27th of March will mark four decades since the production’s West End premiere in 1986.

This past Spring 2025, the historic village of Millthorpe in NSW Central West Australia hosted a new boutique festival that brought opera into close range: open rehearsals, artist talks, and music shared at community scale.

This March, audiences time travelled to 1950s New York for this year’s spellbinding Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour production of Guys and Dolls. This masterpiece all-American musical tells the tale of two pairs of lovers who, in their own ways, have to navigate and realise their love in the face of hidden gambles and bets.

The musical is in many ways, alongside jazz, America’s greatest musical achievement, and Bernstein here weaves this history together with broader symphonic traditions in Europe. Opera Australia’s brilliant dancers turned out in full force for this production, with revival choreography by Kiira Schmidt Carper.

The story of Madama Butterfly is one close to IFAC’s heart. Set under the stars and against the beautiful backdrop of Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, this production perfectly encapsulated the aching beauty not only of Cho Cho San’s love but also her eventual demise.

In 2022, Sydney Harbour was transported to Paris’ le Palais Garnier for the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour’s production of Phantom of the Opera. Based on the novel by Gaston Leroux, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s groundbreaking musical has been a mainstay of the repertoire on both the West End and Broadway.

Raise your glass, flutter those lashes. He’s staring at you, he’s singing for you… Are you tempted? Violetta is the life of every party. A courtesan with a heart of gold, she’s free and free-spirited. Could a little love change everything?

Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour returns in 2021, with a spectacular re-staging of Verdi’s much-loved opera La Traviata

The official trailer for the upcoming Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour 2021; La Traviata

This tragic love story tells the tale of two young people whose happiness is destroyed by the hate of two enemy camps in New York City’s urban jungle…

A candle sputters out in the Parisian night. Two hands meet in the dark and four friends’ lives are changed forever…

Carmen stamps her feet, tosses back her hair and draws you into her world. Men fall instantly under her spell, and once you’ve heard her sultry Habanera, you’ll fall for opera’s favourite femme fatale, too…

Internationally recognised philanthropist and passionate opera lover, Dr Haruhisa Handa, Chairman of the International Foundation for Arts and Culture has been announced as

A powerful lust meets an icy heart. In a land of executioners, riddles and fear, can love conquer death?

An Ethiopian slave girl secretly in love with the commander of the Egyptian armies. As Egypt prepares to march on Ethiopia, Aida faces a terrible choice: to save her country, she must betray the man she loves…

This is the story of a Japanese girl who marries a US naval officer while he is on shore leave. With their child she waits expectantly for his return