The Phantom of the Opera returns to haunt Sydney Harbour in 2026

Opera Australia’s 2026 Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour kicks off a global celebration of Phantom’s 40th anniversary.
A sinister figure wearing a half-mask over his face and 19th Century clothes, including a long, black, cloak-like coat, gestures dramatically as he sings. He stands in front of a large statue of an angel playing the violin in the scene from Opera Australia's Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour 2022 production, 'Phantom of the Opera'.

One of the world’s most successful musicals, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, returns to the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour stage in 2026.

Opera Australia’s Sydney Harbour season of Phantom marks the start of global celebrations for the musical about a masked madman and the young chorus girl he loves, which has played to more than 160 million people in 205 cities across 58 territories – and in 21 languages – since its 1986 world premiere in London’s West End.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the 2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts