Lesser-know Chamberfringe shows a late-night delight

The late-night Chamberfringe concerts at St. Brigid’s are one of the hidden delights of Chamberfest. Not so very well hidden, you might say. Everyone knows they exist, but they are at the end of the day, a very full day for enthusiastic music lovers and the programming may not be to everyone’s taste, and they take place at St. Brigid’s, in what is not necessarily the most inviting area of town. There are longtime Chamberfest patrons who have never attended one of these events.

Yet the venue is often full to its capacity of 250 or so people and would-be audience members are often turned away.

Thursday evening’s show was a particular delight, featuring arias and songs depicting philanderers, murderers, vamps and other folks whose moral code may not be quite the same as yours or mine. These included, among others, Don Giovanni, Musetta from La Bohème and, unsurprisingly, Carmen.

Everything was done with a humorous touch. For example, in Leporello’s Catalog Aria, in which Don Giovanni’s servant reads a list of his master’s conquests, he usually pulls out a book or a scroll. Peter McGillivray reached into his jacket and read from his smartphone.

At noon, the Elora Festival Singers, one of Canada’s finest choirs, appeared at Dominion-Chalmers. Among the more notable offerings on the program was a set of three choral songs by Eric Whitacre, currently the golden boy of choral writing. They were lovely settings of three beautiful poems by Charles Anthony Silvestri, with whom the composer frequently collaborates. All of the subjects were secular which, in choral music, is not as common as one might hope.

The big work on the program was Benjamin Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, nicely sung and nicely accompanied by Matthew Larkin on the organ. Two Lenten Motets by Pawel Lukaszewski followed; these a cappella pieces were marked by striking, though not difficult, harmonies and a dignified fervour.