Plácido Domingo caps a triumphant opening weekend for Dubai Opera

Plácido Domingo at the first night of Dubai Opera on Wednesday. Courtesy Dubai Opera

It is difficult to overstate the sense of promise and the expectations attached to Dubai Opera, an unprecedented, purpose-built performance venue that has already drawn fanciful comparisons to Sydney’s sail-shaped Opera House.

On the basis of the opening weekend, all the hope and hype is not wildly misplaced – the Dubai venue welcomed a vocal legend to the stage and then presented two impressive, full operas, all within its first 72 hours.

The 2,000-capacity building was inaugurated on Wednesday with a sold-out show from the mighty Plácido Domingo who, whatever you might read, still sounds fantastic at 75.

Serving up a pleasing vocal pick 'n' mix that would have won over the sternest sceptic, Domingo shared the stage amiably with frequent collaborator Ana María Martínez, as together they melted hearts with a pair of Verdi duets from blockbusters La Traviata and Il Trovatore.

Verging into Broadway in the second half, the showstopper was the playful Bernstein duet Tonight, from West Side Story – book your tickets for the full version of that musical, which is coming to Dubai Opera in February.

After closing the programme with the solo vocal gymnastics of calling card Sorozábal's No Suede Ser, the "king of opera" returned to the stage to make an impassioned speech about the significance of such a monumental opening, publicly hailing the room's "great acoustics" – a resounding thumbs up from one of the sources that matters most.

Domingo was greeted by a reaction that can only be described as ecstatic – one particularly enthusiastic VIP box showering the stage with flowers – and repaid the adoring masses with a generous serving of no fewer than five encores.

They included a stage-stealing surprise guest turn from Dubai-based soprano Inva Mula, and a crowd-pleasing singalong to sizzling Latin bolero Bésame Mucho.

Domingo was backed ably by Trieste’s Fondazione Teatro Lirico ­Giuseppe Verdi, who were also responsible for the greater technical challenges of the venue’s debut operas.

Much has been made of the touching regional nod evident in presenting Bizet's The Pearl Fishers as the venue's first opera. Yet it was only after the curtain raised on Thursday – to reveal a mighty windswept chorus extolling the virtues, viciousness and valour of a pearl diver's life in song – that the symbolism really rammed home.

Set in what is now Sri Lanka, the opera tells the story of the trouble that follows the arrival of a beautiful, veiled stranger – performed by the excellent soprano, Roberta Canzian – who pledges to forsake a husband and devote her life to Brahma, performing sacred songs for the safety of the divers.

However, as it emerges childhood friends Nadir and king Zurga have previously met, and fallen in love with, the mysterious stranger, her purity is called into question. As guilt and recriminations build, baritone Filippo Polinelli is exemplary as the jealous Zurga in the opera’s tragic finale, complete with flashing thunder, ominous minor chords, and at least one untimely death.

The weekend continued on Friday with the frantically farcical classic opera buffe, The Barber of Seville. Previewed in Arts&Life on Thursday, Rossini's masterpiece will be presented again tonight.

Dubai Opera's opening run concludes tomorrow with the instrumental gala, Opera Without Words. The venue's programme resumes on September 15 with a three-night visit by The Russian State Ballet and Orchestra of Siberia.

Whether this magnificent institution will be able to live up to its own ambitions remains to be seen, but the opening weekend proves that Dubai Opera has exceeded all reasonable initial expectations. Now the job is to fill it with both music – and with people.