Celebrated operatic couple Cheryl Barker AO and Peter Coleman-Wright AO play out the perfect marriage in Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti but behind the glossy veneer of American suburbia lurks their loneliness and longings.

Bernstein penned the stinging words and vibrant score during his own honeymoon in 1952. Trouble in Tahiti leads a high-energy Endangered Productions double bill, Bernstein and Busoni at the historic Eternity Playhouse, Darlinghurst.

Ferruccio Busoni’s whirlwind opera, Arlecchino, revives Italy’s traditional mischievous clown of Harlequin with a modern twist on his compulsive womanising and deceit.

Arlecchino (Andy Leonard, well-known for his title role in Keating!) conceals his pleasures by convincing his village that they’re at war – ironic for audiences at the premiere when the Great War was raging outside.

Arlecchino turns operatic conventions on their head. It’s why artistic director Christine Logan leapt to stage Busoni’s slapstick comedy – and in stunning fantastical costumes.