Competitions in General
Musical competitions can be fun to watch and enjoy,
as long as one is not too passionately or obsessively
involved/interested in the official final results or
ranking.
For my musical journal, I had some of my very first
concerts from competition participants.
I still remember the piano and violin recital of
two young Chinese musicians back in 1984 (or 1983?)
who were about to leave Beijing to participate in
some international competition. I don't remember their
name, and I don't remember the pieces they played,
but all I remembered was the generic "competitor"
that I have seen later on in other competitions.
Very, thin, artistic nervousness/sensitivity, and
technical command of their instruments.
I did enjoy the various competitions held at the
University of Maryland,
including William Kapell Piano competition,
and Maryanne Anderson Vocal competition.
I think I had the perfect recipe for my enjoyment their,
because I wasn't paying any attention to the results
at all, but concentrating on enjoying the music.
This is due, at least partially, to the fact of the
so-called "judge concerts", or the concerts/recitals
help around the competition by the member of the
judge panel.
I got to listen to some famous pianist that way.
And, what a bargain, free tickets for any University
of Maryland students with a summer activity card.
After I moved to Dallas in 1995,
I have followed Van Cliburn Piano Competition,
due to the proximity to Fort Worth.
The one I attended the most was the 2009 competition,
where I heard all the finalists, not all their
concerts though, because I heard some of them in
other round.
But I was almost completely surprised by the final results
I watched live via webcast,
where
Nobuyuki Tsujii (Japan, blind) and
Haochen Zhang (China)
tied for the gold medal
and
Yeol Eum Son (Korea) got the silver medal.
Of the three the only one I agree was Zhang,
who played Mozart with real feeling and flair.
My personal favorite Di Wu and some critics' favorite
Yevgeni Bozhanov were both left out.
As for Tsujii, I have tremendous admiration for him,
like most of the audience,
for overcoming his physical limitations and connect/communicate
through music,
but I think in this case, a double-blind judgment is probably
more fair because it would remove people's emotional and other
non-musical elements from the judgment.
Met Audition Final 2011 (3/13/2011)
I had the opportunity to witness the true highlight of
my competition type of concerts when I attended the
Metropolitan Opera 2011 National Council Auditions
"Grand Finals Concert"
on Sunday March 13, 2011.
There were eight finalists,
3 sopranos and the rest range from baritone to
bass-baritone to bass.
Curiously enough,
there wasn't even one tenor among the finalist,
which was strange giving the role tenors play in most operas.
I guess, somehow to balance it by the organizers,
the host (not performing) was Joyce DiDonato, a mezzo,
and the guest (performing) was Lawrence Brownlee, a tenor,
who not only provided procedural support for the final
but also fireworks after the finalists' performance but
before the announcement of winners.
Here is a run down of my personal (biased) impressions
of the singers as finalists (or finalists as singers),
in the order they appeared:
-
Philippe Sly, a bass-baritone from Ottawa, Canada, started
the concert with an aria from Handel's Rinaldo. His voice
is powerful yet smooth, and he seemed to be fully enjoying
himself. Well, I love Handel's operas, and this Canadian has
some special Canadian characteristics that I truly like. So, he
gave me a perfect start to the concert.
In the second half he sang Wolfram's aria from Wagner's Tannhauser.
I loved it, and think that he is ready for big stage. Combined
with his Handel in the first half, he's definitely my favorite, not
only in singing, but also in choice of music (well, what can I
say, all from my favorite composers!).
-
Deanna Breiwick, a soprano from Seattle, Washington, now
a graduate student at Juilliard just across the street
sang arias from Rossini's opera Le Comte Ory.
from Verdi's Falstaff.
Lovely and flexible singing, and I really enjoyed the music/singing.
I think she made a very intelligent choice of aria that showcased
her particular strength, and I think you'd like her too.
She has a small but sweet voice, with
agility and somewhat more powerful high notes than you'd
expect for a small voice like hers. She got more local support
from the audience.
-
Joseph Lim, a baritone from Seoul, Korea,
sang arias from Le Nozze di Figaro and
Prince Igor's aria by Borodin.
Borodin is definitely
the most ambitious aria/effort of the entire concert.
Well,
I was not that impressed, and the audience seemed to agree with me.
-
Ryan Speedo Green, a bass-baritone from Suffolk, Virginia
sang arias from Verdi's Macbeth. and Rossini's Il Barbiere
di Siviglio. A mature singer, with solid low voice, quite
impressive, and ready for stage.
-
Sasha Djihanian, a soprano from Montreal, Canada, followed
with arias from Handel's Giulio Cesare and Liu's aria from Puccini's Turandot.
Compared to Breiwick,
she's more powerful, but somewhat less agile.
I liked her Liu better,
but the audience didn't seem to be impressed.
-
Nicholas Masters, a bass from New Canaan, Connecticut,
sang arias from Verdi's Simon Boccanegra and
Bottom's Dream from A Midsummer Night's
Dream by Britten
(a weird song to my ears, but he had lively stage performance).
Good low notes,
but somehow lacks power in the very low ones.
- Michelle Johnson, a soprano from Pearland, Texas, sang
arias from Cilea's Adrianna Lecouvreur.
the big aria from Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro.
I guess she's demonstrating that she's really ready for big
stage, and ready to be compared to big-name singers. I heard some
minor roughness, but consider her the most ready among the 8
finalist. Watch out for her!
- Joseph Barron, a bass-baritone from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
finished the list aria from Bellini's La Sonnambula
and Gounod's Faust (not really my cup of tea).
Good too, but I don't know what distinguishes him from others,
Lawrence Brownlee,
a winner 10 years ago,
is becoming my favorite tenor of the young generation.
He sang two aria, after the finalists finished
theirs, and the judges were meeting to decide the winners:
Bizet's Les Pecheurs de Perles,
the heavenly aria "Je crois entrendre encore", which I loved
before this, and love even more after this. It was beautiful,
and even magical, showing off his artistic side perfectly, an
aria with heart, with feeling, and totally convincing.
The second aria was the acrobatic showcase for tenors,
the so-called high-C showpiece, "Ah! mes amis" from
"La Fille du Regiment" by Donizetti. I watched Pavarotti and
Alfredo Kraus doing this on video, but this is the first
time I heard it live. A lot of fireworks, and it really sparkled!
It also goes to show, that finalists, and winners, still have
some distance to go to develop into real singing artists.
Well, I took full advantage of this opportunity to play the ranking
game. Because of my Cliburn experience above, where I ignored audience
response, I did take into account
of the audience response at the Met this time:
- #1 Michele Johnson (I agree with the audience choice and think she's
the most ready to move on to the big stage, right now)
- #2 Philippe Sly (my personal favorite, if not for audience, I might
rank him above Johnson)
- #3 Deanna Breiwick (both myself and the audience liked her)
- #4 Ryan Speedo Green (he's ready too)
- #5 Sasha Djihanian (I disagree with the meager amount of applause by
the audience)
- #6 Joseph Barron (OK)
- #7 Nicholas Masters (I don't like the weird song choice and insufficient
power in his voice)
- #8 Joseph Lim (He's just not that impressive to me)
Well, the official winners are (5 winners, in alphabetical order)
- Joseph Barron (I was really surprised by this)
- Ryan Speedo Green (my #4)
- Michelle Johnson (my #1, so I got to agree)
- Joseph Lim (I was surprised by this too. But he did have the guts to
tackle the long and difficult Borodin, and probably should be
rewarded for it)
- Philippe Sly (my #2, I'm really happy for him!)
So, you see, my judgment is not too much off the mark. Of the
ones who didn't win, I'm sure my #3 (Deanna Breiwick) will have
a successful career because of her beautiful voice and her
intelligence shown in the choice of songs. She's the youngest
soprano (24, while Johnson is 28), and probably the judges
were thinking "she'll have her chances later".
Prepared by Jeff Tian
(tian@engr.smu.edu).
Created March 15, 2011.
Last update March 19, 2011.
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