THE BELVEDERE is widely accepted as one of the most prestigious prizes for emerging talent in the music world and it was a singular honour for Cape Town Opera in collaboration with the South African College of Music and the Cape Philharmonic to be designated collaborators in the first staging of the competition outside of Europe.
Hundreds of applicants who had auditioned in 70 cities around the world were whittled down to the 89 who made their way to Cape Town and gave of their best in two days of elimination rounds in which they were further pared down to just sixteen finalists: from Armenia, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland and the United States.
A competition final round like this is a somewhat artificial concert experience: a string of disparate arias from vastly differing works, strung together in a rather unmatched necklace of musical jewels.
On the other hand, the enjoyment of hearing the young operatic talent of four continents demonstrating their artistry provides its own reward and certainly made for largely engrossing listening.
As with all competitions, identifying the negative is as much part of the process as lauding the superior.
In this event, in addition to some individually awarded prizes, three quite different estates are able to express their view: the competition’s panel of adjudicators, who award the three Belvedere Competition prizes; the international media jury (of which I had the honour to be a member) who award the Media Prize; and the audience, who are able to vote for the Audience Prize.
The outcome was that four singers, between them, shared one of these five main prizes; but that certainly did not mean that they eclipsed the other singers, who can all claim the undoubted honour of having been finalists.
The adjudicators’ prizes all went to singers who performed large, dramatic Romantic arias.
Third prize winner, Raehann Bryce-Davis, an American mezzo-soprano with a rich, dark mezzo, sang Eboli’s showpiece valedictory aria “O don fatale” from Verdi’s Don Carlos. The second prize went to Cape Town’s own Noluvuyiso Mpofu, for her assured account of the celebrated and taxing sequence of Ah, fors’ è lui and Sempre libera from the same composer’s La Traviata.
This award by the adjudicators provides ready evidence that the audience prize, which Mpofu also attained, was not simply due to home town advantage.
Certainly one of the most dramatic of the arias of the evening was that sung by Nicholas Brownlee: Banquo’s final, apprehensive cantabile “Come dal ciel precipita” from Macbeth.
Brownlee looked astonished when his name was called, as well he might. His voice is large and well projected, and he has a supremely professional appearance, but there was some intonational insecurity in the opening measures and the vocal climax teetered on the edge of coarseness. In fairness it should be noted that this was a compulsory aria: his own choices had been considerably lighter in character.
In contrast to all this vocal drama, the Media Prize went to the Italian soprano, Selene Zanetti, for a gently yearning account of the Song to the Moon, from Dvorak’s Rusalka.
Her voice is richly creamy and she invested this haunting aria with a genuine sense of longing that proved intensely moving.
Of the other finalists who caught the ear, mention should be made of the South Korean baritone Byung Jun Ko, whose powerful voice and easy stage presence impressed in an aria from Un Ballo in Maschera; Lithuanian soprano Jomante Slezaite for a stylish and technically assured Come scoglio from Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte; and 20 year old Armenian soprano, Julietta Aleksanyan, for her girlishly vivacious account of Ah! Je veux vivre from Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette.
Kamal Khan conducted the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra with exemplary knowledge of each of the arias, ensuring a warmly sympathetic accompaniment for the young soloists.
There were some indifferent orchestral entries and momentary lapses of execution by individual players. But, overall (and especially given the limited rehearsal time) they can be satisfied with a very creditable performance.
For Louis Heyneman, CEO of the CT Philharmonic Orchestra and one of the organizing team of Hanna van Schalkwyk and CT Opera’s Lize Coetzer, this was a triumph for SA. “Cape Town has the resources to host an international competition, largely because it has an orchestra culture with a full-time professional orchestra steeped in many kinds of performance including opera. This gives it the flexibility to play a programme of 16 arias with one day’s rehearsal since the choice of arias was only announced when the finalists were announced.”