A Waltzy, Stolzy Afternoon from Vienna and In an Elemental Mood

The first, this Sunday, July 16, at the Peter Crisp Galleries, Bowning, features the music of Robert Stolz in a cabaret program. Stolz, the Austrian songwriter and conductor, was best known as a composer of operettas and film music, including the hugely popular The White Horse Inn. So highly was Stolz regarded that on his death in 1975 he was accorded the honour of a lying-in-state in the foyer of the Vienna State Opera House. He is buried near Brahms and Johann Strauss II in the Zentralfriedhof cemetery in Vienna.

The program will begin with Two Hearts in Waltz Time and include Hello, you switchboard fairy sweet, Don't ask me why and Waltzing in the clouds and conclude with The Song of Love.

There will be a different atmosphere at the concert at Wesley Music Centre on Sunday afternoon, July 23. Titled In an Elemental Mood, it features the music of Samuel Barber, Hugo Wolf, Gabriel Faure and Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

"The four natural elements – fire, wind, water and earth – are used as vehicles for song," Anfiloff says. "Each composer approaches his piece differently. We've added a fifth element in our recital: love, with a reference to the 1997 visually stunning film, The Fifth Element."

The film won awards for Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. One section, The Diva Dance, was based on music from Donizetti's opera, Lucia di Lammermoor, which was sung in the film by the Albanian soprano Inva Mula.

"So Elemental becomes Sentimental and we move to 1930s nostalgia and scandal with music by Cole Porter, Herb Brown, Ivor Novello, Kurt Weill and Sigmund Romberg," Anfiloff says.

Pianist Alan Hicks, now resident in Sydney but a regular visitor to Canberra, will accompany the singers at both concert programs.

Anfiloff was a soloist with the Llewellyn Choir when it performed Verdi's Requiem on May 20. On September 2 Anfiloff will again sing with Llewellyn Choir, this time at a concert at 7.30pm at Hughes Baptist Church. Mass in Blue is a 20-minute jazz piece for soprano and choir written by Will Todd in 2013. Described as a fusion of choral music, liturgical harmony and pure blues it is a piece which Todd himself in an interview called "a watershed piece in which I really became myself". It will be followed by Misa Criolla, a work written in 1964 by the Argentine composer and pianist Ariel Ramirez, an exponent of Argentine folk music. It was one of the first masses not in Latin after the Second Vatican Council allowed the use of the vernacular in Catholic churches. The work uses traditional instruments to accompany the folk genres. Connor will be one of the two male soloists who sing with the choir.

Connor has a two-year contract running until 2019 with the Vienna Volksoper, a major Austrian opera house. He will continue to perform his role of Figaro in Rossini's Barber of Seville and also sing the role of Doctor Falke in Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss II. It is quite an achievement for a singer who is not a native German speaker to be selected for roles sung in German but Connor has attained an admirable fluency during his time in Vienna. He will also sing the role of Anthony in Sweeney Todd and of Billy in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Carousel, as well as continuing the part of Freddy in My Fair Lady. "I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time," Connor says. "They were looking for my voice type."

Anfiloff performs and teaches in Vienna, "and I'm not fussy about repertoire," she says. "I do have a passion for oratorio but one of [our] advantages is that Ben and I know how to do a program, something which many Austrian performers, who are so very opera-oriented, don't know."

A Waltzy, Stolzy Afternoon from Vienna. The Crisp Galleries, Bowning. Sunday, July 16 at 2pm. Information: peter@petercrisp.com.au. Art Song Canberra: In an Elemental Mood. Wesley Music Centre, Forrest. Sunday, July 23 at 3pm. Tickets: $15-$35 at the door. See artsongcanberra.org.