In Sydney Chamber Opera’s Aphrodite, the act of looking becomes its own kind of violence. Composed by acclaimed American composer Nico Muhly with a libretto by Laura Lethlean, and presented in association with Omega Ensemble, this striking new work reimagines the goddess of love not as a figure of desire but as a symbol of distortion; a mirror in which the modern self dissolves.
The story follows Ava, a thoughtful academic whose book, The Aphrodite Complex, catapults her to sudden fame after being adapted into a hit documentary. As her public image grows, her personal life fractures. Ava becomes consumed by the pursuit of perfection, sculpting herself for the gaze of others while losing touch with intimacy, authenticity, and selfhood. When the goddess Aphrodite herself appears, cool, composed, and elusive, Ava’s carefully constructed world begins to collapse.
Director Alexander Berlage’s use of live video is both conceptually and theatrically masterful. Cameras flank the stage, embedded in mobile phones, and hang from the ceiling, capturing the performers in extreme close-up. These images, not just of faces but of hands, feet, clothing, trembling skin, are projected on a large screen above the stage, which simultaneously displays the libretto. What emerges is a fragmented portrait of each character: isolated body parts, captured and magnified, turned into objects of scrutiny and aesthetic judgement.
Rather than drawing the audience closer, these hyper-intimate visuals create distance. We are not watching the characters as whole people; we are dissecting them. The body becomes content. Ava becomes an image. Even her moments of vulnerability are caught, cropped, and curated. The overhead camera is particularly cruel: it frames her from above like an anatomical specimen, cold and clinical, as if the goddess herself were observing.
Jessica O’Donoghue gives a deeply affecting performance as Ava, vocally assured and emotionally transparent. Her portrayal balances intellect and fragility, making Ava’s descent into disconnection feel both inevitable and tragic. Puerto Rican soprano Meechot Marrero, in her Australian debut, brings an arresting stillness to Aphrodite. Her presence is magnetic and inscrutable, her voice radiant. She is not temptation incarnate but myth personified; unknowable, unmoved.
Muhly’s score is luminous and precise, shifting between shimmering textures and silences that seem to stretch time. The Omega Ensemble plays with clarity and control, amplifying the opera’s psychological tension without overwhelming its introspective tone.
Aphrodite is a cool, elegant gut-punch of an opera, a work that refuses sentimentality in favour of scalpel-like insight. It’s about beauty, yes, but more importantly, it’s about the cost of being seen only in parts. By disassembling its characters on screen and in sound, it delivers a quietly devastating truth: there can be no connection until we are allowed to exist as whole.
To book tickets to Aphrodite, please visit https://www.sydneychamberopera.com/2025/02/17/aphrodite/.
Photographer: Daniel Boud
