Midsumma Festival – a love is a love is a love

Divisi Chamber Singers | a love is a love is a love

February 3, 2024, Melbourne Recital Centre

For me Midsumma Festival conjures images of drag, cabaret, pride parades and the disco. So it’s wonderful to see the program continue to grow with a number of well attended and well performed contemporary and classical music concerts.

A celebration of queerness, the Divisi Chamber Singers celebrated three of our finest and living composers: Sally Whitwell, Connor D’Netto and Meta Cohen. 

There was a festival atmosphere in the packed out Primrose Potter Salon at the Melbourne Recital Centre, co-presenters of the concert along with with Midsumma Festival and the Divisi Chamber Singers. 

Divisi Chamber Singers are made up of 5 voices and I love that we’re not given a designation for the voice (soprano, alto, bass, etc). The voices are: Alex Gorbatov, Bailey Montgomerie, Alex Ritter, Anish Nair, Marjorie Butcher, Monica Harris, with Coady Green on piano, whose accompaniment was intelligent and expressive throughout.

The program started with Sally Whitwell’s Spectrum, comprised of five contrasting moments – Red, Orange (Torch Song), Yellow, Green, Blue which took us through a series of states and emotions, including a tantalizing play on a “z” sounds, a gorgeous water sequence and an outstanding and arresting crescendo. There was something luscious and luxurious about the style of the work and the singing. 

Connor O’Netto was present in the audience for the premier of his work Stove Photography, a look at the other, darker side of being visible as a queer or different person. It was a double bonus as the writer of the text was also present. The work is in four movements: before I leave the house, taking the view, I wanted to be a writer, and, people make you pay a toll. But it was this text which really put it together for me:

I am different and dangerous which puts me in danger. 

Connor’s working of the text is at times different and dangerous as well, sometimes leaving us bewildered or head spinning. It was a remarkable work, demanding plenty from performers and audience alike, with deliberate clashes and breakneck speeds all doing the music and the text great justice, especially Coady Green on piano. 

Meta Cohen’s confident and reassuring a love is a love is a love with its movements called you, they, she, we, was the final work in the program. There was a breadth and depth to each movement that was very satisfying, the play on the breath of the singers at one stage was particularly delightful. The singers did appear to be having a great deal of fun with the work as well. 

Meta has a wonderful ability to draw in sounds from beyond the classical western tradition. Done in this work with such a light touch, you listen harder, not wanting to miss anything in the score. 

It was a great showcase of the best of queer composition of now. Special thanks to Connor and others whose experiences shaped the new work, It was wonderful to be there with you all. 

Alex Gorbatov who introduced the works gave us permission to clap whenever we liked, and we did. Throwing caution to the wind.  Clapping like queers, you might even say.