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It's midday, and the Palais Theatre is a hive of controlled chaos. The stage is being transformed into an abstracted space overgrown with reeds and flowers, and bays of screens and AV panels are squeezed between the stall seats.

Victorian Opera's latest production, Katya Kabanova, written by Czech composer Leos Janacek, and directed by Heather Fairbairn, is a technically complex one - a 21st-century production staged in a building that, though beautifully restored, maintains one foot firmly in the 1920s.

The Palais has been a part of Melbourne for more than a century. It was a dance hall in 1914, then a cinema, and after being destroyed by fire, it was rebuilt from scratch in 1927. Today, it is mostly a music venue, and Victorian Opera is its resident theatre company. Though the Palais has been restored extensively in recent years - from its major $26 million renovation in 2017 to the installation of a much-awaited new air-con system earlier this year - its 20th century foibles remain. From front of house, it's a large, resplendent theatre. Backstage, it's a rabbit warren.

A performance of Katya Kabanova involves nine principal cast members, a 57-person orchestra and a 40-person chorus, supported by 30 crew. A large LED screen and full-sized cinema screen features live-captured video, harking back to the Palais' history as a movie house. There's also extra lighting, sound, rigging, about 150 costume items, changing rooms and communications infrastructure in the form of cameras and video feeds networked throughout the venue.