By arts editor HELEN MUSA

Star Australian soprano Miriam Allan will return to Canberra next week with a Bach program that ranges from the moving to the comic, joined on stage by her father, baritone Christopher Allan.

Presented by Bach Akademie Australia, Weddings and Parties Over Coffee pairs Bach’s Wedding Cantata with his entertaining Coffee Cantata, a witty miniature opera about a father exasperated by his daughter’s addiction to coffee.

The family connection is more than theatrical, with Miriam and Christopher Allan performing the father and daughter roles together.

Canberra tenor Dan Walker will narrate the humorous work.

Newcastle-born, Allan has built an international reputation as one of Australia’s leading Baroque sopranos. She has appeared with renowned period ensembles including Les Arts Florissants, the English Baroque Soloists and Concerto Copenhagen, and has sung in major venues such as New York’s Lincoln Center, Vienna’s Musikverein and London’s Barbican.

Notably, she also came to worldwide attention when she sang at the funeral of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at Windsor Castle in 2021.

The concert opens with Bach’s Wedding Cantata, followed by two arias from Selig ist der Mann (Blessed is the Man), the overture from the Orchestral Suite No. 2 and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach’s dramatic Sinfonia in D minor.

It concludes with the  Coffee Cantata, one of Bach’s rare theatrical works and a humorous glimpse into 18th century domestic life.

The Canberra performance is part of a five-city national tour by Bach Akademie Australia, continuing the ensemble’s 2026 season devoted to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries.

Weddings and Parties Over Coffee, Wesley Music Centre, August 11.

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