Love and Lust celebrated by operatic voices

Conductor Simon Kenway says the 2018 Canberra Symphony Orchestra Opera Gala theme is Love and Lust. We can only speculate as to why, in that case, he's bringing a group of young male and female singers to sing in it.

But seriously: there will be five featured soloists - two sopranos, two bass-baritones and a tenor - and 15 ensemble members in the concert, from Sydney postgraduate professional development centre Pacific Opera, of which Kenway is artistic director.

Kenway promises the concert will have "Something for everybody."

There will be some popular favourites, including E lucevan le stelle from Puccini's Tosca, sung by Caleb Son, Ebben ne andrò lontana from Cilea's La Wally sung by Laura Scandizzo and the Meditation from Massenet's Thais - with a humming chorus.

"There's a lot of music from Verdi," Kenway says, and the program begins with the Prelude to Act I from La Traviata.

It also includes Christopher Curcuruto singing Come dal ciel precipita from Macbetto, one of the composer's early operas, and Ayako Ohtake performing Sul fil d’un so ffio etesio from Falstaff, Verdi's final opera.

Also on the program is the storm scene from Verdi's Rigoletto and the quartet from Beethoven's Fidelio. as well as pieces by Tchaikovsky, Delibes and Richard Strauss.

But there's also the lesser-known Il est doux, il est bon from Grémont's Hérodiade, sung by Livia Brash.

She says, "That piece is gorgeous - big, lush, lyric lines."

Brash will also sing the well-known Una voce poca fa from Rossini's The Barber of Seville, which she describes as "fireworks - lots of high notes, lots of runs ...a showstopper".

Originally from Newcastle, Brash came to Canberra to study classical voice at the ANU School of Music in 2010 and spent some time teaching in the ACT before going on to do her Masters at the Sydney Conservatorium.

"I love Canberra - it's really pretty," she says.

"I miss all the action there. I met lots of really wonderful people, people I'm still really friendly with."

She is now an associate artist at Pacific Opera, having joined it last year, and says its program runs the whole gamut of what it takes to work in the professional world including stagecraft, singing, acting, languages, personal branding and the business side of things.

"They take about 12 people a year and it's fantastic for performance opportunities."

Brash says that besides her, Rebecca McCallion, Jessica Westcott and Elora Ledger all have Canberra links and they intend to show the others around the city while they're all here.

Among the highlights Brash wants them to experience are going up Telstra Tower, the cafes in Braddon and the Canberra Nara Peace Park.