Music / Best of All Possible Worlds, National Opera Chorus. At Wesley Uniting Church, September 7. Reviewed by ALANNA MACLEAN.

It was good to see National Opera Chorus at play with repertoire in a concert that touched on an intriguing range.

Under the baton of Callum Tolhurst-Close with accompanist Rebecca Simon supported by Emily Leong, the company tackled everything from Purcell to Brahms to Britton to Bernstein with a fair bit of other music in between.

Sometimes it was the whole choir. At other times some soloists gave a taste of what they might do with a whole role.

At times it was hard to keep up, but Tolhurst-Close kept things on track with a bit of good humoured linking narration.

Perhaps the afternoon was overloaded, but the sampling was enjoyable. There were glimpses of The Merry Wives of Windsor and Purcell’s King Arthur. The police from The Pirates of Penzance made an appearance with Peter Smith lugubriously leading their complaints. The Pilgrims’ Chorus from Tannhauser made for a lovely solemn moment as did a couple of the philosophical chorus passages from Bernstein’s Candide.

Some soloists had a chance to try things on for size or revisit what they have already done. Oscar Boswell showed promise in the darkness of Gethsemane from Jesus Christ Superstar. Alira Prideaux played amusingly with the dangers of mistaken identity in Mein Herr Marquis from Die Fledermaus. Adela Greenbaum contrasted this with the wonderfully oppressive world weariness of Marie from Kurt Weill’s Marie Galante.

Benjamin Britten’s Britten’s gloomy yearnings in Peter Grimes reminded of his dark evocation of the world of the fishermen. Fledermaus got another lively showing with Brunderlein und Schwesterlein which gave opportunities for a range of solo voices as well as for the ever stalwart choir. There were a number of delightfully performed selections from Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes. And the afternoon finished up with the deceptively cheerful Ainsi Que La Brise Legere from Gounod’s Faust.

It was a big program, almost overstuffed with goodies but providing good performance opportunities all round for a range of talents. Watch out to see what they do with Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel at the Albert Hall in December.