“LA Bohème” isn’t immediately thought as an opera suited to the harbourside setting of Opera Australia’s now-annual Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, but against the odds, director Andy Morton has managed to pull off a moving and powerful production of Puccini’s greatest tear-jerker.

It’s not as stately as “Aida” nor as ferociously dramatic as “Carmen”, but with credible acting and designer Dan Potra’s clever idea of transforming the harbourside setting into snowbound Paris, they get away with it.

Shining out above the theatrical elements are the conducting skills of Brian Castles-Onion, who has performed his heroic role for Opera Australia with every single Handa Opera so far, pulling the whole production together. With expert sound design from Tony David Cray, who creates perfect miking under tight control, and the seasoned performances from the Opera Australia chorus, the vocal splendour of “La Bohème” allows whatever interpretation the director overlays on the timeless tale of youthful love and death.

Little flakes of snow waft down on the audience, fireworks explode as love blooms, and lively crowds pack the stage as Parpignol the clown is raised aloft by a crane. Video designer Marco Devetak expands the visual dimension with his huge on-screen evocations of Paris in winter. It all makes for an evening of spectacle that could easily have sidelined the intimate drama, but somehow it doesn’t.

Small matter that the director and designer decided to update the setting to late 1960s Paris, where students were throwing Molotov cocktails at the authorities, the sheer joy of the music soars above such distractions to make a night of high emotion.

The horseplay in the opening scene with the students in the Parisian flat was effectively played by the contrasting characters, Ho-Yoon Chung as Rodolfo, Samuel Dundas as Marcello, Richard Anderson as Colline and Christopher Hillier as Schaunard, establishing Puccini’s peculiar vein of humour that turns to pathos in the final scene of the play.

In the tragic role of MimÌ, Romanian soprano Iulia Maria Dan was unusually assertive, her voice at times almost too rich and powerful for the frail seamstress, but the passionate romanticism of Ho-Yoon Chung as her male counterpart Rodolfo evens the match.

Catering to the outdoor setting, Morton creates visual diversions to stimulate interest – young lovers in the streets, highjinks at Cafe Momus, mischievous children racing around the stage and, and later in the ravishing Act III set at the gates of Paris, bunches of protesting students.

But all this activity sometimes detracted from the impending tragedy and the decision to have Musetta threaten Marcello with a revolver raised more questions than it solved, obscuring the contrasting vocal exchanges of Rodolfo with MimÌ, set against Marcello and Musetta. Julie Lea Goodwin in the latter role was directed to seem trashier than usual, when in the final act is shown as sympathetic and religious. But she proved well up to that challenge and developed Musetta’s role to an affecting conclusion.

It’s safe to predict that this will not worry visitors to “La Bohème” unduly. This after all, is essentially a piece of operatic entertainment designed to please crowds and entice those unfamiliar with opera.

1960 settings notwithstanding, this was an evening of glorious music. Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour has developed in technical sophistication and in this production the romance of the harbour matched the romance of true love.