It’s not an easy thing to wrench an opera star away from their busy schedule to spend a string of days in the Adelaide Hills, but the promise of “deep escapism” and sculpting five concerts of her own was enough to persuade Siobhan Stagg into programming this year’s Chamberfest at UKARIA.

Those who have followed the Mildura-born singer’s career over recent years will have been well pleased. Not only was this an opportunity to hear Stagg up unusually close, but her curatorial abilities were on full display. Apparently, it took her 15 months to prepare this series of weekend concerts, and it was clear from the start that she had undertaken it with the most fastidious care and dedication.

One thinks of Stagg primarily as an operatic lyric-coloratura soprano. Her six years as a principal soloist with Deutsche Oper Berlin come to mind, together with dozens of appearances at leading opera houses from Covent Garden to Chicago. The intimate venue of UKARIA seems a world away from all that, and the question was how she might adapt to a space that demands something other than the kind of volumetric projection that cuts over an orchestra.

It was fascinating, therefore, to hear Stagg start with music by Hildegard von Bingen. In the first ‘Origins’ concert, the stage was shrouded in darkness and Stagg walked on holding a candle. As she placed it on a stool and knelt on the floor, silence reigned. Then in a hushed voice she sang the responsory ‘O vis eternitatis’ (O power within Eternity) from this 12th-century abbess’s Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum – being one of the only complete sacred song collections from the Middle Ages.

Her voice small, delicate and contained, Stagg gave its climbing line a warm, gentle waver and the clearest Latin diction. Behind her, Stagg’s Berlin-based accompanist Jonathan Ware, played simple bare fifths and complementary melodic traceries on UKARIA’s Steinway grand. The mere thought of adding piano might to this medieval music have seemed shockingly out of place, except that it was so sparingly and tastefully done that all historical sins could be immediately forgiven.

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In fact, this was one potent discovery to come out of her Chamberfest series: besides revealing a much deeper musical knowledge than one might have realised, Stagg had collected highly sophisticated musical colleagues to join her. Ware is her pianist of choice for obvious reasons: he thinks in tandem with the singer to a degree that well surpasses what accompanists usually accomplish.

Their symbiotic relationship could be appreciated most of all in Fauré’s La Chanson d’Ève, Op. 95. This late song cycle demands so little and yet so much to reach its heights – interpretative restraint, sensuality and ecstasy all at the one time. All were gloriously present. Stagg is an exceptionally insightful singer for whom the meaning of the words holds primacy: one could appreciate how she sees these 10 songs as ‘vocalised poetry’ where all meaning resides in the words by Charles Van Lerberghe. For French art song, Stagg is a front league performer. With a vocal timbre that has a clear, light edge and just the right amount of mellow warmth, she also has unsurpassed diction.

It’s a voice one can listen to endlessly. Mozart’s Die ihr des unermesslichen Weltalls Schöpfer ehrt, K. 619, was superb. Vivacious and elegant, everything felt in proportion, and again highly communicative. Stagg really is the complete artist.

By now one was getting a sense that her highly crafted programs were more than a concert series. It was like stepping into her personal world. Singing a more animated chant by Hildegard offstage in the second half, she then walked through the aisles for a jubilant performance of Hadyn’s most famous soprano aria, ‘Nun beut die Flur das frische Grün’ from The Creation. Great fun came when Stagg and several of her musician friends scattered through the audience started playing mechanical music boxes in Brett Dean’s homage to Haydn’s Creation in ‘Doch war noch alles nicht vollbracht’ from his ‘evolution’ cantata, In This Brief Moment. Whirring noises emanating from around the auditorium in this very approachable piece of new music were completely wonderful.

Just as striking was a semi-acted performance of Sibelius’s haunting tone poem Luonnotar, Op. 70, in a piano arrangement. Crouching in the corner before exploding with emotional energy, Stagg was hugely dramatic in this piece, which is likewise based on creation mythology. Two hyper-romantic songs by Medtner, ‘Der Engel’ and ‘Praeludium’, closed out a remarkable opening recital program.

A striking discovery in Stagg’s Chamberfest were her other contributing musicians. Flying in were two other top-class singers, British mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston and Berlin-based soprano and pianist Rachel Fenlon. Both are up with Stagg in their respective areas of expertise. Wonderfully partnered by Ware on piano, Charlston was potently expressive in Schubert’s Der Erlkönig. Fenlon, meanwhile, is a powerhouse performer on her own, taking on the seemingly impossible task of accompanying herself in traditional art song right up to George Crumb, Radiohead and compositions of her own. How the one person can sing and play piano at the same high level is almost never heard of. Her bracket was a killer, truly a show within a show.

Quatuor Agate from Paris were another major find. Perfectly blended with Stagg in Debussy’s song cycle Ariettes oublièes, they made time dissolve away into pure sensory sound. Their unity was beyond match.

Chamberfest has amply proved its worth in the past, but this time more than ever.

Chamberfest ran from 2-4 October at UKARIA Cultural Centre, Mount Barker Summit