As soon as I finished the DVD I had rented from netflix.com, I went to amazon.com to buy a copy; every one of the half-dozen previous purchasers who rated the production had given it five stars - the maximum on that site. All those who had commented went overboard; and I added my own comment, which was that I agreed with everything the previous writers had said in praise of the experience. The opera is a great masterpiece, with a near-constant flow of gorgeous melody; the libretto is sung in French but the excellent sub-titles make sure that one knows what is going on at every moment, and the drama is irresistible from first to last. It is the music-making, though, which makes this production take off, and the acting and the dancing - in other words, everyone on stage and in the orchestra pit performs superbly. If this is typical of the work of Australian Opera then what goes on inside the Sydney Opera House is as breathtaking as the landmark building itself.