South Pacific's world of lovers but a dream

WE can't share the feelings of South Pacific's first audiences but we can put ourselves into its geography and hear its plea for tolerance.

South Pacific

WE can't share the feelings of South Pacific's first audiences, who were only a few years removed from World War II and still living with its effects, but we can put ourselves into its geography and hear its timeless plea for tolerance.

The wonderful 2008 Lincoln Centre production, restaged by Bartlett Sher for Opera Australia, again and again shows us a map of our region where South Pacific's sailors, nurses, expatriates and islanders have been thrown together as Americans try to prevent Japanese dominance: look, there's Papua New Guinea, the Solomons, the Great Barrier Reef.

The action, set against Michael Yeargan's ever-changing backdrop of cloud, sky and sea, feels so very familiar yet has a dreamy quality that allows Rodgers and Hammerstein's story of romance, self-discovery and sacrifice to honour and also transcend its 1940s setting.

In such a world it is happily possible to believe love could blossom so quickly between French planter Emile de Becque (Teddy Tahu Rhodes) and Nellie Forbush from Little Rock (Lisa McCune).

Rhodes -- no stranger to the Opera Theatre stage -- has imposing height and physique that create their own drama against McCune's petite beauty, and the pair's individual strengths mesh to overcome their weaker suits.

De Becque's ravishing Some Enchanted Evening and This Nearly was Mine have possibly never been better sung. Rhodes's bass-baritone is a burnished thing of beauty and an instrument of enormous power, especially in this amplified setting; McCune is an adorable, playful Nellie fully in command of a character with unlikable traits whom we must nevertheless love.

She absolutely has the measure of I'm Gonna Wash that Man Right Outa My Hair, the delightful swing of her delivery making it plain that while Nellie may think she means it, this is a decision destined not to last.

Rhodes's operatic career hasn't instilled in him the ease the best music theatre stars bring to the stage, while McCune has a sweet but very small voice. Yet somehow it works, thanks to a sound design that so ably brings voices from far-apart universes together.

Crucial to an appreciation of this production is how Sher handles what we might call the tricky Bali Ha'i undercurrent. He gracefully avoids cliches of amusing native colour and takes seriously South Pacific's thread of mysticism, which comes to the fore with its second pair of lovers.

When Lieutenant Cable (Daniel Koek) falls instantly in love with local girl Liat (Celina Yuen) on Bali Ha'i, the connection feels ordained, fragile and otherworldly. Koek, singing with true, bright and unmannered style, makes the delicate Younger Than Springtime not only touching but prescient. He and Liat are the fresh, untouched counterpart to De Becque and Nellie and, with his death, will remain ever so.

Impeccable support comes from Eddie Perfect's earthy Luther Billis, Kate Ceberano's sharp, funny and sensual Bloody Mary and a fizzy ensemble. And the contribution from the pit is a revelation. In Sydney, 33 players from the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra under the exceptionally sure command of Andrew Greene (in Melbourne there will be an orchestra of 25) deliver a score by turns exuberant, buoyant, romantic, regretful and tinged with exoticism. It's not the reason OA is staging South Pacific, but definitely reason to see it.

South Pacific. Opera Australia. Sydney Opera House, August 11.

Tickets: $49-$220. Bookings: [phone]. Until September 9. Melbourne, September 13-November 4.