BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2015

[Lynette H]

The BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition starts very soon, with the first recitals for the Song Prize on 14 June. The BBC will be showing programmes 19th - 21st June on BBC4. There is quite a bit of material on its web site about this, including the biographies of a very eclectic bunch of competitors (from USA, Canada, Korea, Belarus, Democratic Republic of the Congo and various European countries).

Home page for the competition is here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/r2hzp6?lang=en

I don't know how many of the actual broadcasts will be available via I player outside the UK but in the past there have been a number of excerpts available.

[MadameP]

The BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition starts very soon, with the first recitals for the Song Prize on 14 June. The BBC will be showing programmes 19th - 21st June on BBC4. There is quite a bit of material on its web site about this, including the biographies of a very eclectic bunch of competitors (from USA, Canada, Korea, Belarus, Democratic Republic of the Congo and various European countries).

Home page for the competition is here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/r2hzp6?lang=en

I don't know how many of the actual broadcasts will be available via I player outside the UK but in the past there have been a number of excerpts available.

Just wanted to say - thank you for the reminder! I am really looking forward to this!

[dirac]

Thank you for the heads-up, Lynette H. I hope people who tune in to this will tell us about what they hear!

[Mashinka]

I was at a performance of Don Giovanni on Tuesday (sung by former competitor Christopher Maltman) so missed round 1 but enjoyed yesterdays round 2 very much. For me it would have been difficult to choose between the winner, American Lauren Michelle, and Korean tenor Jaeyoon Jung. but it's worth remembering that even singers that don't win their heats can still be selected for the final.

Ms Michelle was very confident and looked stupendous, only her choice of the 'embroidery' aria from Peter Grimes didn't quite work, the Traviata was very good though. The experts felt that Jung didn't sing the Italian tenor's aria from Rosenkavalier ideally though as it's a favourite of mine I rather enjoyed it. I imagine the scoring was pretty close and both singers will find appearing on CSOTY will have boosted their careers. I'm out again tonight so will miss round 3 but looking forward to the rest as the standard looks high this year.

[dirac]

Many thanks for the report, Mashinka. Here's an interview with Maltman from a few years back. Six-packs seem to be quite a big deal in opera these days.

There are one or two American baritones who are renowned for doggedly removing their shirts in every single role. But Maltman should have enough opportunities to do so legitimately in future. He intends to keep singing Billy Budd "for as long as I can walk without a Zimmer frame", and would like to play Debussy's doomed lover Pelléas. Then there are plans in the pipeline for Tchaikovsky's brooding anti-hero Onegin and, finally, the greatest "bad" role of them all - Mozart's arch-seducer Don Giovanni. But for now, please don't send those T-shirts here.

[Helene]

Eh, "Guardian" with the blame-the-Americans: it was British-New Zealand baritone-accountant Teddy Tahu Rhodes who was first famous for performing shirtless and displaying a fine set of abs, something he began to lament, since he was expected to be time-consumingly buff:

http://barihunks.blogspot.ca/2008/01/shirtless-teddy-tahu-rhodes-doing-push.html

Ah, Barihunks.

Jongmin Park of South Korea has won the song prize:

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/arts-culture-news/bbc-cardiff-singer-world-jongmin-9494055

[Helene]

The Song Final is accessible on the BBC Player for 30 days after the original broadcast; currently it's available for 29 days.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0607fdx

[Mashinka]

After missing Thursday's heat as well (was watching a Harrison Birtwistle double bill), on Friday I failed completely to predict the winner preferring both Canadian Aviva Fortunato and American bass Ryan Speedo Green to the very showy coloratura who won. The extrovert Mr Green is the type of singer the Brits love btw and I'll be surprised if he doesn't turn up in something this side of the pond before long.

The song prize competition was broadcast last night and Jongmin Park's deeply emotional performance richly deserved to win.

Tonight's final was a bit mixed with a couple of singers perhaps choosing repertoire that was a little ambitious. Mongolian bass Amartuvshin Enkhbat gave the performance of the evening for me with a stunning Tonio that should open opera house doors for him across the globe. I wasn't the only one to be wowed by him as he won the audience prize, awarded after the viewers cast their votes for who they like best. Interestingly this doesn't always coincide with the overall winner.

Nadine Koutchner was the ultimate winner and she gave a faultless Bell Song from Lakme that was indeed impressive. It was her thirteenth opera competition, and she claims, her last.

In an interview Kiri Te Kanawa made the point that latterly a number of the contestants are already becoming established in their careers and the average age of the singers has been increasing over the years, in fact one of the competitors was commuting between Cardiff and Paris where he's singing a major role in Cosi fan Tutte. As always, it will be interesting to see how many of the 2015 entrants will climb to the dizzying heights.

[Helene]

Green won the Met Council Auditions a few years ago and has received most of the prestigious American grants, and he's already on his way.

I love Amartuvshin Enkhbat. I would go out of my way to hear him and Park.