The Ukrainian Andrei Kymach was just a babe in arms when Dmitri Hvorostovsky took the Cardiff Singer of the World title in 1989, but that his burnished baritone occasionally reminded one of that much-missed Russian only added to the conviction that Kymach was a most worthy winner this year. An aristocratic presence on stage, the integrity and focus of his musical and dramatic characterisation across the week of competition was compelling. Only the words mattered.
Not that Kymach’s win was a walkover. The Chinese tenor Mingjie Lei’s charm and sincerity were obvious, his high tenor very even and surprisingly mellow. Winning his earlier round with easy accomplishment marked him as a future star, and his lieder singing won him the coveted song prize on Thursday.
For those who make the final of both the song and main prize categories, with little time to recover between their four performances, the vocal stamina involved inevitably means traces of fatigue coming through by the end. And with the television coverage and attendant chat not unlike a sporting event, a degree of fearlessness is essential. The South Korean Sooyeon Lee – who appeared, like Kymach and Lei, in both finals – betrayed no nerves and much finesse, her gleaming soprano deployed with remarkable technique and breath control. She was naturally poised, with no histrionics even when for both her early and final round she offered mad scenes, from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Bellini’s La Sonnambula. Her coloratura in the latter was a huge crowdpleaser, but ultimately these high-wire vocal acrobatics didn’t display enough variety.
Guadalupe Barrientos from Argentina was a big mezzo voice with an effervescent personality to match and, had she sung Wagner again as in her early round, her place in the final as the wildcard entry might have been better justified. Her diction was less than clear and her choice of Elgar’s Sabbath Morning at Sea from his Sea Pictures was brave, though probably misguided. The American Patrick Guetti was the only bass and the change of repertoire was welcome, yet less would have been more. Guetti’s earliest progress was in musical theatre and, for all the panache of his delivery – Aaron Copland’s I Bought Me a Cat very much a show-turn – the exaggerated mannerisms seemed better suited to that genre.
While the Joan Sutherland audience prize, given this year in memory of Hvorostovsky, went to the English soprano Katie Bray, Kymach’s success will see him in demand across the world – and rightly so. Each of his performances was delivered with utter conviction and a burning intensity, eyes alive to every nuance of meaning. In Bizet, he was the supremely confident and slick Toreador, a heart-wrenching Aleko in the aria from Rachmaninov’s early opera and a darkly vengeful Enrico in Donizetti. That charisma had been equally audible in his earlier song prize performance, where the size of his voice was no barrier to intimacy and communication, lyrical line always paramount.
On a night given added distinction by the artistry of pianist Llŷr Williams, who played for all five singers including the Welsh mezzo Angharad Lyddon and the Russian tenor Roman Arndt, Kymach was the voice to which one could happily listen again and again and never tire of it.
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion