The Song Company has eclectic tastes and ambitions. Later this year they perform a concert of English Renaissance choral works, and another featuring 19 newly commissioned songs by Australian composers. Currently the company, which has a new lease on life after a significant donor intervened when it went into voluntary administration earlier this year, is presenting this program of 1980s pop songs book-ending the titular chamber opera, Mind Over Matter. The former are delightfully arranged and performed, but the opera verges on nonsensical, and fails to engage either musically or comically.

Antony Pitts in The Song Company’s Mind Over Matter. Photo © Nick Gilbert

With luxuriant hair and white suit reminiscent of a mature Bryan Ferry (Roxy Music’s former frontman), The Song Company’s Artistic Director, Antony Pitts, provided piano accompaniment for a vocal quintet for the first song, Joe Jackson’s Steppin’ Out. He then joined them for an a cappella interpretation of a-ha’s a-ha, before conducting a more complex arrangement of Tears for Fears’ Mad World, which was reminiscent of Gary Jules’ stripped-back 2001 cover version.

Dressed in over-sized, mostly loud suits typical...