Since COVID-19 hit, Opera Queensland (OQ) has been confined to presenting its online An Aria A Day program and, more recently, some intimate concerts with singer and piano accompaniment in its studio. But as the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) tentatively opens up its theatres, assisted by the Queensland Government’s Arts and Cultural Recovery Package, moving back into the Concert Hall became a reality. Engaging the Queensland Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the multi-talented Dane Lam, a quality concert program of operatic songs and music, entitled ENCORE, was presented.  Seven locally-based singers celebrated the human condition through some of opera’s best music with themes that included love and passion, loyalty and friendship, despair and hope. The artists were terrific, giving polished performances with quality singing and presentation skills and an overall professionalism boding well for the state’s ability to stage full-scale opera, if needs be, from its Queensland base.

The cast of ENCORE at QPAC. Photograph © Jade Ferguson

French repertoire included Bizet’s Carmen and Saint-Saëns Samson et Dalila and three pieces from Gounod’s Faust. Soprano Eva Kong sang Marguerite’s breath-taking Jewel Song from Faust, ably demonstrating the vocal fireworks and top...