BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, 18/06/2023

Main Prize - Grand Final

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Michael Christie

Ryan Bancroft

Beth Taylor. mezzo-soprano (29, Scotland)

Handel : "Va tacito e nascosto" (Giulio Cesare)

Kienzl : "O schöne Jugendtage" (Der Evangelimann)

Berlioz : "Le spectre de la rose" (Les nuits d'été)

Compared to the Handel aria in her round, "Va tacito" seemed rather tame, despite the duetting with the horn, and in fact Taylor's whole programme was very restrained, where we had, I think, been hoping for at least a partial repeat of the fireworks of Concert 4.  The Kienzl was a mournful, if touching aria, new material for me, Der Evangelimann an opera written in the 1890s and a big success at the time in Germany, though pretty much forgotten now.  However, both of these numbers paled into insignificance beside a formidable performance of Berlioz's "Le spectre de la rose", arguably his greatest song, and certainly one of the greatest orchestral songs in the French repertoire.  Taylor brought good French, and an intense interiority to the song that utterly gripped the audience, and excused one or two small mishaps of phrasing.  The listening quality in the hall was extraordinary, it felt like we were all holding our breath until she had finished.  Looked at in hindsight, her programme was not varied enough, but the Berlioz was worthy of an award all by itself.

Nombulelo Yende, soprano (31, South Africa)

Moniuszko : "Oh! Our baby is dying... Oh, my little one" (Halka)

Tchaikovsky : Letter Scene (Eugene Onegin)

Once again, Yende was going for only two substantial numbers.  The first was interesting territory.  Moniuszko was a major opera composer in Poland in the mid-19th Century, the 'father of Polish opera', as far as that country is concerned, but unlike Chopin, (with whom he is almost exactly contemporary, but rather longer-lived), he is not nearly so well-known outside Poland.  Of his nine completed operas, two stand out, The Haunted Manor, a lively comedy, and his first, the drama Halka, of 1848.  This aria is the titular role's last, part mad-scene, part revenge aria.  Yende followed it up with Tatiana's Letter Scene from Eugene Onegin, an extended scene that demands a very wide variety of expression.  And that was precisely what was lacking in both numbers.  Yende has an undeniably magnificent natural instrument, but there is no real depth of feeling behind it, something she very much needs to acquire.

Adolfo Corrado, bass (29, Italy)

Mozart : "Non più andrai" (Le nozze di Figaro)

Rossini : "La calunnia" (Il barbiere di Siviglia)

Verdi : "Vergini... Sciagurata!,... O speranza" (I Lombardi alla prima crociata)

This was a very safe programme from Corrado, all in Italian, and though the last is from a lesser known work, Verdi is always Verdi.  On paper, it was a little worrying, because if any of the others, who had more diverse programmes, performed to the highest standards, Corrado would be in a poor position.  However, he was certainly playing to his strengths, and the same power and presence that had set the hall alight on Wednesday made itself felt again.  Not perhaps, right away, the Mozart was a solid performance, with a little bit of bite to "narcisetto", but not quite as characterful as his Leporello had been.  However, his Don Basilio was very nicely calculated, not exaggeratedly comic, and the "colpo di cannone" was exactly that vocally.  The Verdi showed expansive phrasing and good lines, and well handled shifts of mood.  This was a very polished performance all round, and there was no real fault to be found with any of it.

Jessica Robinson, soprano (32, Wales)

Handel : "Tornami a vagheggiar" (Alcina)

Donizetti : "Chacun le sait" (La fille du régiment)

Rachmaninov : "Vocalise"

Arditi : "Il bacio"

This was an ill-judged programme altogether, which was unfortunate for Robinson.  She admitted herself in a pre-concert interview that she had never sung this Handel aria before in performance, and the structure seemed weak, with the ornamentation of the repeat A section curiously undecided in style, if not in execution.  She repeated the Donizetti from her qualifying round, and I found it as unsatisfying tonight as I did on Monday, not because of the singing, but because of the aria itself, which seems bitty.  The Rachmaninov which followed, however, was a bad, bad mistake, Robinson does not have the legato for this, and the phrasing was all over the place, in a song which has absolutely nowhere to hide for the singer.  She ended with a winsome performance of an old coloratura war-horse, Arditi's "The kiss", but I think she was aware that the Rachmaninov had gone badly, and although everything was in the right place in the Arditi, it lacked conviction.  A disappointing showing all round.

Siphokazi Molteno, mezzo-soprano (31, South Africa)

Massenet : "Qui m'aurait dit la place" (Werther)

Strauss : "Wie du warst" (Der Rosenkavalier)

Rossini : "Una voce poco fa" (Il barbiere di Siviglia)

The first surprise was that Siphokazi Molteno walked on stage in an actual dress.  For her last three appearances, she has chosen to wear a smart trouser suit with a camisole top, but tonight she came out in a glamorous blush pink and silver number with fluffy feather trim.  Molteno is another one who tends to swallow her consonants in French.  I let it pass in the extract from Sapho in her round, because there was enough there that it was generally intelligible, but her Charlotte needs work, the text is very important, particularly in this Letter Scene, and there's quite a bit of it.  The expression is good, but we couldn't tell why she was expressing what she was expressing, because we couldn't hear the key words.  The Strauss, in my opinion, was a mistake.  There was some very nice tender singing, and the texture of the voice lightened convincingly, but this is a 'bleeding chunk' if ever there was one, it's not a true aria, or even a number, it's part of an extended duet, and it just sort of peters out unsatisfyingly in the end.  There's a reason most mezzos will pick the Composer's Monologue from Ariadne auf Naxos, because that is a complete number.  The Rossini, however, was a proper showstopper.  First of all, it showed Molteno's lighter side, something she had been keeping under wraps until now, Second, her ornamentation was original, favouring the lower end of the voice, rather than exclusively the upper.  Finally, she built it steadily, to a rafter-shaking top note on the final cadence, a very nicely controlled display that duly enthused the audience.

There was a fair bit of enthusiasm for Molteno's performance in particular in the hall, but when it came down to it, I'd have to say the prize was awarded on points, and all four of the ladies had lost points quite markedly in various ways, while Corrado had played it safe, delivered both vocally and scenically, and confirmed the exciting impression we got of him on Wednesday without any quibbles being raised.  So Adolfo Corrado is the 2023 Cardiff Singer of the World.  As for the Audience Prize, I had thought that would probably go to Jessica Robinson, but I forgot that this year the BBC threw it open internationally, and it went to Julieth Lozano Rolong from Colombia, which delighted me as she had been my choice. 

[Next : 27th June]