Created by Professor Jane Davidson, Passion, Lament, Glory was a bold outing at St Paul’s Cathedral for the University of Melbourne’s Conservatorium of Music. A female-centric exploration of the Easter story – Christ’s passion (suffering), his mother Mary’s lament, and his resurrection – the performance was centred around much-loved Baroque music by Handel and Pergolesi, dramatised through theatre, dance and a dignified dash of circus with varying degrees of success.

The venue was among the production’s greatest strengths, but also its greatest weakness. St Paul’s is acoustically well suited to choral music, and aesthetically ideal: everything about this Gothic Revival cathedral was a reminder about how sacred this music was when composed in the 18th century, and the Medieval-inspired altarpiece’s dominant image of the crucifixion apropos to the Easter theme. The drawback was that there were considerable sightline problems during the program’s first half, presented near the centre of the nave.

Here, charmingly accompanied by the occasional “ding-ding” of trams outside, guest soprano Jacqueline Porter was joined by a small Baroque ensemble for the first work, Handel’s Salve Regina. Led by Con lecturer and Pinchgut Opera artistic director Erin Helyard at the organ, these professional players otherwise comprised only two violins,...