Dmitry Hvorostovsky sings Rachmaninov’s In The Silence of the Secret Night from a 1990 recital. This was not long after he had won the 1989 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.
Tag: Cardiff Singer
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Miranda van Kralingen
The Dutch soprano Miranda van Kralingen competed at the 1991 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. Her performance of ‘Beim Schlafengehn’ from Strauss’s Four Last Songs stood out among much fine singing at that prestigious event, and I’ve preserved my tape of it over the years, despite a radio dropout during the orchestral interlude.
Click below to listen:
Miranda van Kralingen – Beim Schlafengehn ~ R Strauss – Cardiff 1991
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Mother and Child Reunion
(A re-post from Oberon’s Grove, dating from 2007)
My friend Mollie, who lives in Fareham, England, sent me this story about meeting her mother after 71 years! Mollie and I have known each other for over 3 decades, since the time I answered her small ad in the British magazine OPERA. She was looking for tapes of Frederica von Stade and I happened to have a real rarity: a recital Flicka gave in Syracuse, NY on her first tour as a professional singer.
Mollie came to the USA several times over the years and once she had the good fortune to have Flicka invite her to a working rehearsal of IDOMENEO at the Met. Mollie and Flicka have stayed in touch to this day.
Each summer Mollie sends me the tapes of the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition and so it was that I was one of the first people on these shores to hear the voices of Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Bryn Terfel within a week of the famous ‘battle of the baritones’ in 1989.
The last time Mollie was here, she met my late friend the Japanese contralto Makiko Narumi who was at that time on the brink of the big career that never happened.
I knew that Mollie had not been raised by her real parents but I had no idea of the story behind it, or that she had located her mother who is now 93 years old. I’ll let Mollie tell the story; Jeremy is Mollie’s son and Syd is Jeremy’s daughter.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
“HI dears…just to send on this fantastic photo of me and MY REAL MOTHER!!! After 71 years!!! A sad story and we did not stay long. Jeremy was great and knocked on the door and when she answered he said she was not to be upset at what he had to say, but that he was her grandson. She went to say ‘go away’ [nicely] but he said, “Before you say anything I have to say we just would like to put a face to a name and have waited a long time to do so but we will go away after that”. She was explaining that she lives alone and was RAPED by my drunken Irish father..that accounted for her never wanting to know about me.
I then got out of the car and went over and said it was so kind of her to see us and we would not stay but may we just have a photo? She said that since 1920 she had lived here in the family home. She had a little smile and twinkle in her eye and said, “He is very handsome isn’t he?”…meaning Jeremy, who was charm himself…glad he took me!!!
Anyway, she made us promise not to come again and said it is too much for her…at 93!! Very sprightly!!! She said she had driven until she was 80 but has severe athritis in her hands and knees. When we were leaving she called me back and gave me two photos of herself…and she gladly took the latest school photo of Syd which Jeremy happened to have in the car…so…we were all exhausted but exhilarated…especially as although it took 2.4 hrs to get to Ash it took another hour or more along single lanes to find the house..and only then because a lady drew us a map!!!!!
Home exhausted…Jeremy had driven for 7 hours…so was kindness itself..he was as excited at me at finding his grandmother as he has none and hasn’t since he was 4!! That’s all folks but just wanted to share my good news…”
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Beth Taylor ~ Voce di Donna
Scottish mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor sings La Cieca’s aria “Voce di Donna” from Ponchielli’s LA GIOCONDA from a concert performance given by the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2020, during the pandemic.
Watch and listen here.
In 2023, Beth was a finalist at the Cardiff Singer of the World competition; many people, myself included, felt she was the rightful winner.
In May 2025, Beth will be at Carnegie Hall with the English Concert under Harry Bicket’s baton, singing Cornelia in Handel’s GIULIO CESARE. Details here.
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Souvenirs from Cardiff ~ Part III
Erin Wall, a native of Calgary, Canada, was a finalist at the 2003 Cardiff Singer of the World competition. She had made her international debut the previous year singing Britten’s War Requiem in London. She spent three seasons building repertoire at Lyric Opera of Chicago, and made her Met debut in 2009 as Donna Anna. In 2014, I had the pleasure of hearing her as Strauss’s Arabella at The Met.
Erin Wall’s repertoire includes Freia, the 3rd Norn, Strauss’s Daphne, Marguerite in Faust, Ellen Orford, Chrysothemis, Helena in Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Thais, and Mozart’s Contessa Almaviva. She does a lot of concert work, most notably the Mahler symphonies 2, 4, and 8, and Strauss’s Vier Letze Lieder.
Erin Wall – Vier letzte Lieder ~ Frühling
Counter-tenor Matthias Rexroth was born in Nuremberg and made his debut in Purcell’s King Arthur at Stuttgart in 1999. Having won major voice competitions at Barcelona and Vienna, Mr. Rexroth was soon performing Bach and Baroque works all over Europe, and he represented Germany at the 2003 Cardiff Competition. He sang often with conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and also with Riccardo Muti and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. His operatic repertory covers numerous Handel roles and ranges from Monteverdi to Britten.
Watch Mr. Rexroth singing at the the 37th Concurso Francisco Viñas in Barcelona here.
Since 2014, Mr. Rexroth has been professor of voice at the Opera Academy of Warsaw; he also gives masterclasses internationally.
Parts of Ms. Wall’s and Mr. Rexroth’s 2003 Cardiff performances are heard here:
Cardiff 2003 – Matthias Rexroth – Erin Wall
Bucharest-born Ruxandra Donose came to prominence following an impressive showing at a voice competition at Munich in 1990. She soon joined the opera company at Basel, and – thereafter – the Vienna State Opera. Her international career has since continued apace, and lately she has taken on roles like Kundry and Sieglinde.
Above: Ruxandra Donose as Nicklausse in Contes d’Hoffmann; a Marty Sohl/Met Opera photo
I met Ruxandra in 2004 while I was working at Tower Records; she was singing Nicklausse at The Met and she stopped by at the opera room. We had a lovely chat.
Here’s Ruxandra at the 1993 Cardiff competition:
Ruxandra Donose – Allerseelen – Cardiff 1993
And Roger Vignoles is the pianist for Ruxandra’s lovely singing of Dalila’s seduction aria from a 2014 London recital here.
~ Oberon
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Souvenirs from Cardiff
Above: Finnish soprano Karita Mattila with the Cardiff Singer of the World trophy in 1983
BBC Cardiff Singer of the World is a competition for opera and lieder singers held every two years. The competition was started by BBC Wales in 1983 to celebrate the opening of St David’s Hall in Cardiff, Wales, home of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. The first singer to win the title of Cardiff Singer of the World was Karita Mattila. Since then, hundreds of singers have competed; many have gone on to stellar careers whilst others have faded from view.
Karita Mattila’s winning performance is documented here.
Soon after that first Competition, my English friend Mollie began sending me cassettes of the various rounds of each year’s competition. From these, I saved items of interest which I eventually was able to convert to MP3s. I’ll be posting these, in no particular order, over the coming months.
Danish tenor Sune Hjerrild
Sune Hjerrild – Waft her Angels ~ JEPTHA – Cardiff 2005
Latvian counter-tenor Sergejs Jēgers
Sergejs Jēgers – Latvian counter-tenor – Venga pur ~ MITRIDATE RE DI PONTO – Cardiff 2005
Above: basso Julian Konstantinov
In 1993, Italian mezzo-soprano Elisabetta Lombardi and Bulgarian basso Julian Konstantinov competed. Excerpts from their Cardiff appearance:
Elisabetta Lombardi ~ Julian Konstantinov Cardiff 1993
Ms. Lombardi (above) sings Alban Berg’s Die Nachtigall here…
…and Samuel Barber’s Hermit Songs here.
~ Oberon
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Cardiff Singer of the World ~ 2019
Ukranian baritone Andrei Kymach (above, photo by Alexander Andryuschenko) is the 2019 Cardiff Singer of The World. En route to winning the title, Mr. Kymach gave this vibrant performance of Count Tomsky’s narrative from Tchaikovsky’s PIQUE DAME.
Mr. Kymach joins a list of illustrious singers who have claimed the Cardiff prize since the competition was founded in 1983 – among them: Karita Mattila, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Katarina Karnéus, Anja Harteros, and Shenyang.
This year’s winner of the Song Prize is Chinese tenor Mingjie Lei (hoisting his trophy, above, in a Kirstin McTernan photo). It was Sir Bryn Terfel who won the first Cardiff Song Prize, in 1989. Watch the 2019 Song Prize final round here.
Mingjie Lei was also a finalist in the main prize competition.
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Dmitri Hvorostovsky Has Passed Away
One of the era’s few true titans of the opera world, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, has passed away at the age of 55.
It’s possible I was the first person in the Americas to hear the voice of Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Within a week of his historic Cardiff Singer of the World win in 1989, my dear friend Mollie sent me tapes of the competition – which had produced the famous ‘Battle of the Baritones’ as Dima and Bryn Terfel vied for the top prize. They both won: Hvorostovsky the main title and Bryn took the Lieder Prize; they both went on to spectacular careers.
His Cardiff win sent the charismatic Russian singer on a career trajectory that took him to the great opera houses and concert stages of the world. He was beloved by audiences everywhere.
At The Met, Hvorostovsky made his debut in 1995 as Prince Yeletsky in PIQUE-DAME. He went on to sing nearly 200 performances with the Company. I had the good fortune of seeing him often in such roles as Belcore in ELISIR, Germont, Posa, Andrei in WAR & PEACE, Onegin, Renato in BALLO IN MASCHERA, Count di Luna, Simon Boccanegra, Carlo in ERNANI, and Rigoletto.
In 2015, already in treatment for a brain tumor, Hvorostovsky made a heroic effort to come to New York City to sing three performances as Count di Luna in TROVATORE; the audience greeted him with fervent affection, and he sang beautifully.
Above: fantastic moment as Dima greets fans after his 2015 Count di Luna at The Met.
In February 2016, I saw Hvorostovsky for what was to be the final time: in recital at Carnegie Hall. On May 7th, 2017, he appeared on The Met stage for the last time: at a gala marking The Met’s 50th season at Lincoln Center, Dima made an unannounced appearance, singing the “Cortigiani!” from RIGOLETTO.
Three times prior to that last Carnegie recital, I heard Hvorostovsky in concert settings. The first was at Symphony Hall in Boston where, in 1995, he gave an all-Russian program with chorus; as an encore, he sang “America the Beautiful” – gorgeously – and took a high A (or was it a B-flat?) at the climax that was simply thrilling. The entire afternoon was a feast of splendid singing.
In 1998, soon after I’d moved to New York City, Hvorostovsky sang Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder with the New York Philharmonic. The music suited him to perfection. And in April 2010, he joined soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in a program of arias and duets at Carnegie Hall: two of the truly distinctive artists of our time.
Looking back:
Dmitri Hvorostovsky – BALLO aria – Cardiff 1989
Dmitri Hvorostovsky – In The Stillness of the Silent Night~Rachmaninoff – Cardiff 1989
More of The Voice:
PECHEURS DES PERLES – duet – Paul Groves & Dmitri Hvorostovsky – Tucker Gala 1995
Hvorostovsky – TROVATORE aria – Tucker Gala 1995
Dmitri Hvorostovsky & Rene Pape – DON CARLO scene – Met 2006
Hvorostovsky – arias from PRINCE IGOR and ERNANI – BBC Proms 2006
As Eugene Onegin:
Dmitri Hvorostovsky – ONEGIN aria
Portrait of the artist as a young man:
I met Dmitri Hvorostovsky only once, very briefly. I was leaving work at Tower Records as he and his wife were coming in. I spontaneously held out my hand and he grasped it firmly and gave me a smile. Neither of us said a word.
Dmitri Hvorostovsky – Tchaikovsky ~ None But The Lonely Heart
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From Cardiff ~ 2017: Excellent Massenet
At the fourth concert of the 2017 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, exceptional performances of two arias from Massenet’s WERTHER were particularly gratifying. Tenor Kang Wang (above), who has sung an impressive Narraboth at The Met, delivered the poet’s lamenting “Pourquoi Me Réveiller?“ with striking sincerity.
Catriona Morison (above), from Scotland, moved me deeply with her sense of quiet desperation in Charlotte’s “Air des Lettres“. A superbly attractive woman, Ms. Morison’s voice and her emotional engagement in the character’s situation made her performance of this aria – which does not always work well out of context – as fine as any I can recall.
UPDATE: Catriona Morison was co-winner – along with Mongolian baritone Ariunbaatar Ganbaatar – of the 2017 Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prize. Watch as Dame Kiri Te Kanawa presents the trophy here.
Both Ms. Morison and and Kang Wang along are finalists in the competition for the Main Prize, as are Mr. Ganbaatar, England’s Louise Adler, and the American baritone Anthony Clark Evans.
UPDATE #2: Hot off the press: Catriona Morison named Cardiff Singer of the World 2017!! Can I pick ’em or can I??
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From Cardiff ~ 2017: Iurri Samoilov
I haven’t been overly impressed with most of the singers at this year’s Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, but baritone Iurii Samoilov from the Ukraine moved me in this Rachmaninoff song.
Oberon's Glade 
