The small Civic Hall in the village of Flinders on the Mornington Peninsula is packed for this evening of Baroque opera presented to launch the 2026 Peninsula Summer Music Festival.  

Soprano Myriam Arbouz, tenor Jacob Lawrence and baritone David Greco perform excerpts from Baroque operas, accompanied on period instruments by the Festival’s 10-piece Baroque Orchestra under the creative direction of Melbourne-based Baroque harpist Hannah Lane.  

The excerpts are grouped thematically into six scenes depicting the idyllic pastoral life, nymphs, fairies, love and courtly wit of the Baroque world. They open with the overture to Stefano Landi’s 1632 opera, Il Sant’Alessio. This sparsely orchestrated work gives our 21st-century ears a chance to adjust before Arbouz makes her entry with the prologue La Musica from Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (1607). 

Opera Gala, Peninsula Summer Music Festival 2026. Photo © Prue Bassett

In the second scene, devoted to pastoral light and play, the audience is treated to an exceptional performance of the madrigal Zefiro torna (an ode to the zephyr wind) as well as an orchestral ritornello and several more, equally satisfying excerpts from the same opera. 

The third scene gives expression to various...