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: World Competition
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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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Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha @ Cardiff
South African soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha has won the Song Prize at the 2021 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.
Ms. Rangwanasha is also the “wildcard entrant” for the final round of the Singer of the World Competition. Here she is performing “Ebben, ne andro lontana” from Catalani’s LA WALLY: Link
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Souvenirs from Cardiff ~ Part II
~ Author: Oberon
1989 was a banner year for the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition: the “Battle of the Baritones” put the competition on every opera lover’s map. Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Bryn Terfel vied for the top prize; in the end, Dima was named Singer of the Year and Sir Bryn captured the Lieder Prize. Both men went on to hugely successful international careers.
Of course, at the time, there was no internet to speak of. You could not instantly follow the competition from afar, and even news of it was slow to reach us from the other side of The Pond. But my wonderful friend Mollie Warren diligently taped much of the proceedings directly off the BBC; then she made copies of the cassettes to send to me. So within a couple of weeks, I was listening – in Hartford CT – to the sounds of Mssrs. Hvorostovsky and Terfel: I like to think I was one of the very first people in the Western Hemisphere to hear these voices.
The three other finalists in the 1989 competition were Finnish mezzo-soprano Monica Groop, Swedish soprano Hillevi Martinpelto, and the Australian soprano Helen Adams. I cannot seem to find much information regarding Helen Adams in the years following her appearance at Cardiff; she is heard here in “Depuis le jour” from LOUISE.
Above: Monica Groop
Monica Groop’s extensive international career in opera, concert, and song has included a memorable portrayal of Lucretia in Britten’s RAPE OF LUCRETIA in 2003 at New York City Opera; it marked the only time I saw this wonderful singer live onstage. Her other operatic roles have ranged from Melisande to Zerlina, and she has sung and recorded a great deal of Baroque music – in which she excels – as well as lieder of Schubert and Brahms, and the complete songs of Edvard Grieg.
Some samples of Ms. Groop’s artistry, singing in Italian, French, and German:
Monica Groop – Stà nell’Ircana ~ ALCINA
Monica Groop – D’amour l’ardente flamme ~ DAMNATION DE FAUST
Monica Groop sings Schubert’s Du bist die Ruh
Monica Groop at Cardiff, 1989:
Monica Groop – Cardiff 1989 – CLEMENZA~WERTHER
Hillevi Martinpelto went on from Cardiff to a very successful career, performing and recording with prominent orchestras and conductors.
Here she is singing Weber…
Hillevi Martinpelto – Ocean! Thou mighty monster ~ OBERON
…and in a true rarity:
Hillevi Martinpelto – from Karl-Magnus Fredriksson’s The Disguised God ~ Soprano & Chorus
Here is Hillevi Martinpelto at Cardiff, 1989:
Hillevi Martinpelto – FORZA aria – Cardiff 1989
And finally, the winners:
…Dima…
Dmitri Hvorostovsky – BALLO aria – Cardiff 1989
…and Bryn…my original cassette of Bryn from the competition would not play, but here he is, onstage, singing Schumann…
…and here’s a bit of Wagner, from a commercial recording:
Bryn Terfel – Song to the Evening Star – TANNHAUSER
~ Oberon
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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.
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In The Silence of the Secret Night
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.
Oberon's Glade 
