Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse
David Syrus
There must have been something a little strange about this year's intake of singers for the Toulouse Competition, because the selection of candidates for the final was decidedly odd. To begin with, there were only 10 finalists, rather than the usual 12 - this for a competition in which there are 7 prizes to be distributed. Of the ten, there were six South Koreans, and eight men, of whom five were tenors. Not exactly what you'd call a representative sample, under normal circumstances.
It's the jury that picks which two pieces, out of those proposed by the candidates, the finalists sing on the night, and tonight there appeared to be a bit of a theme going - nearly everyone sang something in French, with somewhat variable results in terms of diction. Other than that, however, there was quite a good variety of music being performed; some warhorses, but other, slightly less familiar material too. However, on the whole, this was a less than satisfactory vintage of competition, and none of the finalists really made the kind of impact on me that one expects from an international level competition.
Bahg Seungju (26, tenor, South Korea)
Hahn : Si mes vers avaient des ailes
Cilea : "È la solita storia" (L'Arlesiana)
Serviceable is about the only appropriate word for this. Nothing very wrong with it, but nothing very right either. Indistinguishable, though not too horribly deformed, French, fair Italian, not a great deal of expression either in the song or in the aria, and a slightly tight top. A performance that went in one ear and out the other, no stops on the way, save perhaps to register that the orchestra was playing very nicely. Next!
Lee Konstantin (27, tenor, South Korea)
Liszt : Pace non trovo (Sonetto di Petrarco CIV)
Donizetti : "Ah, mes amis... Pour mon âme" (La fille du régiment)
The problem with the Liszt Petrarch Sonnets as songs (as I've mentioned before) is that unless you're very careful - and very good - the piano part is rather more interesting than the vocal line. Lee started well enough, but sort of lost focus half way through, and the song meandered, held together only by the pianist. Lee then engaged rather more successfully with the show-stopping "Ah, mes amis" and its infamous nine high Cs, which were delivered without fail - not, perhaps, very beautifully, but also without hesitation or any sign of faltering.
Antonina Vesenina (30, soprano, Russia)
Rachmaninoff : Margaritki (Op. 38/3)
Donizetti : "Par le rang et par l'opulence... Salut à la France" (La fille du régiment)
I was looking forward to "Daisies", it's one of Rachmaninoff's loveliest songs, but in my experience more often heard in transcription than in the vocal original. However, the fresh wonder of the text was not apparent in Vesenina's singing, and not unlike Lee before her, the song seemed to lose focus part-way through. The Donizetti was not bad, but her French in the aria was somewhat impenetrable, muting the expressive value of the music. The cabaletta was rather better, but although she has the coloratura and the high notes, it's not a very pretty sound up there in the stratosphere. With only two ladies in the finals, it was highly unlikely she would go away without a prize, but at this point I very much doubted it would be a first place. She was placed Third.
Park Ki Hun (21, tenor, South Korea)
Respighi : Nebbie
Puccini : "Che gelida manina" (La bohème)
"Nebbie" is a notoriously difficult song, its slow movement, long, sliding scales and unexpected harmonic shifts make pitching rather tricky, and it needs to be tightly controlled in order not to slide into grand guignol, because the text has distinctly Poe-like overtones, while the song is cold, still and bleak. Park managed the tuning very well, and with good, clear Italian, but chewed the scenery a little too much, something which I wish he had done more of for Rodolfo's aria from La bohème. The voice is fresh and quite appealing, but his phrasing was poor here, not paying enough attention to the conversational nature of the text, and as a result, sounding rather stilted. However, he's very young, with plenty of time to learn, and I think it was in recognition of his potential that he was awarded Second Prize. Maybe a name to look out for in another five or six years.
Migran Agadzhanian (24, tenor, Russia)
Massenet : Élégie
Verdi : "O fede negar potessi... Quando le sere al placido" (Luisa Miller)
The Massenet was an outright mistake. This is another song better known in transcription than in vocal form, and indeed, the sung version is usually for voice, piano and a string instrument (normally cello, but I've heard violin too). There was no warmth of tone from Agadzhanian, and no melancholy, nor was the vocal line sufficiently legato, not to mention the heavily accented French. For the Verdi, the voice shifted up a little in the mask and brightened, projecting better, but the performance was still fairly routine.
Gil Byeong-min (22, bass, South Korea)
Rachmaninoff : Ne poy, krasavitsa, pri mne (Op. 4/4)
Bizet : "Quand la flamme de l'amour" (La jolie fille de Perth)
I'm more used to hearing "Sing not to me" in a higher voice, but for the first time this evening, my attention was caught, nevertheless, by this forthright bass voice with a good expressive range and vocal colour, and a real sense of loss. The Bizet can be a bit of a challenge dramatically; bitter, ironic, resentful, depressive, even a touch humorous if the singer can manage it, it is probably the most lugubrious drinking song in the operatic repertory. Gil was not quite up to the full panoply of expression, but it was a more than respectable performance, and one that finally showed a touch of that something extra one looks for in a competition. He was awarded First Prize
Dilyara Idrisova (27, soprano, Russia)
Mozart : Alleluia (from "Exsultate jubilate", K. 165)
Meyerbeer : "O beau pays de la Touraine" (Les Huguenots)
I said the stats were skewed in this final. The only other female candidate was also Russian, and also a high lyric soprano. However, Idrisova's voice has a much better tone quality than Vesenina's, a less shrill top, and just as comfortable in the coloratura. That said, she still did not give a really top-class performance. The Mozart lacked radiance, that sense of exaltation, of pure joy, that you get from the best interpretations, while the Meyerbeer seemed somewhat routine, and a little graceless. She was, nonetheless, clearly the better soprano on the night, and what I suspected would happen came to pass - no Ladies' First Prize was awarded at all, and Idrisova received a Second, and the Audience Prize.
Kim Jung Rae (22, baritone, South Korea)
Strauss : Heimliche Aufforderung (Op. 27/3)
Korngold : "Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen" (Die tote Stadt)
Gil's appearance marked a distinct up-tick in the quality of performances overall, and Kim Jung Rae confirmed the trend, along with a welcome shift of musical focus, away from French and Italian, and into German Late Romantic territory. The Strauss song flowed well, though it could have done with a little more forward impetus, while the Korngold was appropriately mellifluous. I like a lighter timbre in this music, in general, and Kim is quite a dark baritone, but the tonal quality is good, as was his German, and he put forward a persuasive argument for both items.
Kim Beomjin (25, tenor, South Korea)
Hahn : À Chloris
Donizetti : "Tombe degli avi miei" (Lucia di Lammermoor)
Of all the tenors heard tonight (one or two too many, to be frank), this was, hands down, my favourite. The Hahn was elegantly handled, with relatively clear French, and a very nice sense of style, playing into Hahn's 18th Century pastiche with grace. As with most of the tenors, when it came to the operatic extract, the voice brightened noticeably, more forward projecting, and his Edgardo rang out with sincerity. In my opinion, I would have given Kim the 2nd Prize in place of Park, but it turned out to be joint 3rd.
Anas Séguin (24, baritone, France)
Brahms : Von ewiger Liebe (Op. 43/1)
Massenet : "À quoi bon l'économie" (Manon)
Out of all the art-song selections tonight, there were only three of real quality, Gil's Rachmaninoff, "À Chloris", and this Brahms, delivered with a sure, warm, bright tone, good German, a smooth line, and a good grasp of the song's changing dynamics. The title of the Massenet, when announced, raised a bit of a laugh; in the light of France's current political climate, an aria asking "What use is economy?" clearly tickled the audience's funny-bone. The outer sections had plenty of insouciant charm, although the central part, in which Lescaut rhapsodises over the latest beauty to catch his eye, drifted a little, not quite as well focused, but the overall impression was very positive. I've accused this competition of national bias before, and I would have been rather surprised had the only French contender gone away with no award; however, in this case, Séguin deserved his Joint 3rd.
[Next: 17th September]
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