Hawaii Opera Theatre’s "Siren Song" is event theater at its best — a new venue revealing an unfamiliar part of the city; food and drink to purchase on-site before and after (try the dessert bacon!); and a new work about current events, revealing unrecognized parts of ourselves.

You may remember the story from the news: A young sailor answers a lonely hearts ad, begins corresponding via letters, and falls passionately in love with a woman invented by a con man, who bilks the gullible fellow of all his savings.

It is the siren song of love, and as the con man sums up, "Isn’t that the greatest feeling in the world?"

We may think the young man foolish, the con man heartless, but "Siren Song" explores the ways we all yearn for love. When we fall in love, how much is real, how much imagined, how much of it is love with love itself? So often, we fall in love with the person we imagine the other to be, and only later discover who they are.

HOT’s "Siren Song" is distilled "essence of opera": condensed (running time is about an hour and a quarter), powerful, stripped of spectacle and hoopla, brilliantly designed and spectacularly performed.

This is a great event, and anyone who misses it is going to regret it for years.

Those used to the luxuries of opera may be taken aback initially. This production is in a warehouse downtown, with all the anticipated "amenities": cement floors, open beams, the ubiquitous corrugated steel of warehouses and wharves, clangy acoustics and folding chairs.

And yet, once the music begins, all that is forgotten.

As a special bonus for this Hawaii premiere, composer Jonathan Dove was on hand. Take a moment to talk to him (how often do we have a chance to meet composers of operas we see?) and be sure to hear his engaging preperformance talk.

Dove’s music draws you in and is so carefully crafted that words and music are inseparable. The music, of course, set the mood, but also led, commented, echoed, punctuated, created all that was happening, embodying the drama. It was both effective and thoroughly enjoyable, and there were so many wonderful moments, it invites rehearing: the sirenlike, wordless vocalizing by "Diana," the imaginary love interest, enticing Davey, the young sailor; the soaring melody of "I love her"; the echoing lines as Diana comes into being and as Davey falls into the con.

The audience can similarly "fall into" this production in a way not possible in a large hall. Seating is only about 10 rows deep, with the stage as wide as the seating, so that expressions and nuanced acting are visible. There is no real backstage area, and the drama unfolds quite literally in front of you.

The set, simply facing staircases, is stationary and scenes are created through ingenious projections created by Adam Larsen. The opera begins with undulating waves on an open sea, and as the young sailor writes and reads, words begin to appear in the waves, his imagination building upon the emptiness. Images emerge rather than appear, varying in clarity and color to show us what characters "see."

Warehouse acoustics meant even the chamber orchestra of 10 musicians overwhelmed singers at times, but fortunately only in climaxes. The opera is in English and intelligible throughout, even without subtitles/supertitles.

Crucially, the cast was uniformly excellent, with outstanding main leads. Vale Rideout and his clear tenor created a sympathetically naive, vulnerable young sailor, so in love with love that the incredible deception became believable. Davey becomes a partner in his own deception: "Teach me what women are like."

As the imaginary Diana, soprano Rachel Schutz delivered a beautifully enticing "siren song" throughout and looked the part of a young sailor’s ideal, a glamorous globe-trotting model. (Her early line, "I love cheesecake — I can eat all I want and I never put on weight," humorously confirmed her as fictitious.)

Baritone Wes Mason, as Jonathan/Brian the con man, was charming and sly, despicable and believable. He trod that careful line between being con man and partner in love, enjoying the fantasy as much as the sailor: "Don’t be mad at me, Davey. We had a good time."

Director Henry Akina and his production team, including conductor Vincent de Kort and designers Larsen, T.H. Stettler (scenery), Helen E. Rodgers (costumes) and Sandy Sandelin (lighting), are to be commended for bringing this work to Hawaii and for delivering such a fine production. I had no idea what to expect and was thoroughly entranced.

This is a fantasy love affair, so it’s not for children, but adults of all ages will love it. Go. Take your friends. Have a good time.

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Ruth O. Bingham received her doctorate in musicology from Cornell University and has been reviewing the musical arts for more than 25 years.