In the ample open-air seating, visitors can sip gourmet cocktails stirred up by mixologist Marco Faraone and dine on authentic Italian spuntini platters and wood-fired pizzas in Sydney's world-renowned summer weather.
Without the necessary vocal weight and gravity, it is hard to see Mr. Fry as much of a threat to the Faraone of Wayne Tigges, a powerful presence despite a tendency to sing sharp.
Keri Alkema, the only returning singer in the cast (she was an impressive Donna Elvira in the company's "Don Giovanni" in 2009) brings a burnished intensity and clean coloratura to Amaltea, Faraone's wife and an Israelite sympathizer.
Channeling Robert Wilson or Achim Freyer, Mr. Counts and choreographer Ken Roht set up tableaux and some slow gestures (rigid vs. fluid, with Faraone apparently signaling traffic and Elcia drawing serpentine arcs) and otherwise leave the characters to stand and sing.
Faraone's son Osiride wants to keep the Israelites around and continue his clandestine love affair with the Israelite Elcia, so he urges Faraone to break his promise and ends up a casualty of the last plague, the Slaying of the First-Born.