Music / Homecoming: An Opera Gala. At Snow Concert Hall, November 20. Reviewed by HELEN MUSA.

Five gifted young singers from the Queensland Conservatorium at Griffith University presented an informal yet elegant recital showcasing their talents on Wednesday night.

Four of the five, Freddie Klein, Jack Bolton, Xanthe Allen and Liam Jackson, had grown up in Canberra, while the fifth, Tashana Hardy was raised in Newcastle, but, she told us, she’d gravitated toward Canberrans once at the Con, so she almost counted.

The concert was aimed at presenting opera in a low-key way, without, they said, “any of the domineering etiquette sometimes associated with our artform”. It was staged with stylish costuming, supported by the perfect piano of associate artist Anthony Smith.

Homecoming was the brainchild of Hardy and former Canberra Grammar School student Freddie Klein, who began the concert unusually with the aria Vainemant from Le roi d’Ys by French composer Édouard Lalo, the perfect low-key introduction for Klein’s light tenor.

As the evening progressed, we were treated to arias in French, German and Italian, songs from two operettas, popular sentimental songs and even a scene from the contemporary musical Tangled, where tenor Bolton drew laughter by playing Rapunzel.

Not only was the concert a showcase for vocal excellence, but it illustrated well the Queensland Con’s focus on good acting and interpretation, for in each case, the singers acted out their roles fully, engaging with the audience, as seen when Xanthe Allen gave us an insinuating and mischievous look at Carmen’s Habanera.

Another former Grammar student, the tall commanding baritone Jack Bolton, presented the challenging Dance macabre by Saint-Saëns, fully engaging with the audience, while Liam Jackson’s penetrating tenor nearly brought the house down with his affecting rendition of Un Furtiva Lagrima from Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love.

Hardy delivered Musetta’s waltz, Quando Me’n Vo’ from La Boheme, as a soprano piece with considerable aplomb, making strong eye contact with the audience. She later returned to give an equally animated rendition of Vilja, in German.

This was a recital full of contrasts, with two works each from the Merry Widow and The Pirates of Penzance opening the second half.

Apart from the momentary excursion into musical theatre with Mother Knows Best, from Tangled, the final part of the concert was something of an nostalgia trip, with Ivor Novello’s We’ll Gather Lilacs performed as a duet by Hardy and Jackson, Bolton returning for a zippy performance of the traditional Floral Dance, then Hardy and Klein singing I’ll See You Again by Noel Coward, before all five returned to give an ensemble rendition of Jerome Kern’s Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man of Mine.

This was an evening of pure pleasure so it was unsurprising to learn that the three of the young artists, Klein, Hardy and Jackson, had all been engaged for a professional production of Pirates at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre.