VOCAL TALENT IN SPOTLIGHT
Competition winners crowned
The 2015 Montreal International Musical Competition finals began with faint noises in the woods, as singers who had astonished in a little hall with piano accompaniment struggled in the Maison symphonique with an orchestra. Only one competitor made the move with her charisma intact.
Soprano Hyesang Park opened with the marriage-avoiding aria from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, and she instantly commanded the stage. Her extraordinary sound had more bite in the big room, with an exquisite edge like a stiletto made for stabbing Borgias. Her Lucia di Lammermoor was stupefying, aside from some lumpy consonants, and her weightless entrances made the orchestra sound like a St. Bernard lumbering after a sparrow. Nobody thought she’d finish second.
On Tuesday, OSM conductor Johannes Debus took too many op- portunities to lengthen lines and only Park seemed to connect with the orchestra, though perhaps the competitors had been spoiled by luxuriously attentive pianists at Bourgie Hall.
Baritone Vasil Garvanliev disappeared in a murky but polyglot program that seemed designed to impress with its variety but played to his weaknesses. A little charm emerged in Deh, vieni alla finestra from Don Giovanni, but without the slyness that gave his semifinal performance a brash likability. The last of five Mahler lieder landed well, the rest vanishing in orchestral clumsiness and some weak vocal phrasing. No prize for him.
Anaïs Constans seemed nervous and an otherwise gorgeous Ach, ich fühl’s from The Magic Flute hit a patch of vocal gravel, though the catch in her voice added beautiful vulnerability to her Caro Nome. The athletic Park seems like she could sing anything, while Constans’s buttery soprano has a round, kind sound that’s less fa- tiguing. But her finals performance was weaker than the semis.
On Wednesday, soprano France Bellemare took her program as a warm-up until Berlioz’s Villanelle, which sparkled, though her full sound only emerged in an enchanting performance of Sì, mi chiamano Mimi from La Bohème. It announced the arrival of a transformed singer and was followed by some of the best Rachmaninoff of the competition. Too late for me, but not for the judges, who gave her third place. There are advantages to being the only local finalist.
Baritone Takaoki Onishi started well, with four gripping Mahler lieder sung in excellent German. He’s a disastrous actor, nailed to the floor, his natural expressions limited to how far he leans. When he did make efforts at meaningful movement in the arias, it seemed to cost him vocal focus. But his sound is incredible, and if his performance wasn’t good enough for the podium, it set up an interesting contrast with the eventual winner, tenor Keonwoo Kim, who followed.
Kim is in some ways the opposite of Onishi. He’s got stage presence to burn, a radiant smile and a tendency to wink at cameras. His in- terior shaping was sometimes dull, his pronunciation is mediocre and his enthusiasm became cloying in Roméo’s aria, but he was the only competitor to improve with each number and the only one whose final was the best of his three rounds.
Though he’s technically weaker in most categories, together it made him a compelling artist. Arias from The Pearl Fishers and La Cenerentola were fresh and earnest, and he showed good stamina for the end. Even if he doesn’t have Park’s supernatural facility or Constans’s sumptuous tone, he’ll be an asset to any opera. He deserved some prize.
We won’t know if listeners gave the Radio-Canada People’s Choice Award to somebody else until Friday’s gala concert, where the winners will also be announced for the Lied and French Art Song Prize, the award for the best Canadian artist, the Joseph Rouleau Award for best artist from Quebec, and an award for the best semifinal recital. All at the Maison symphonique (tickets cost $25 to $50.50 via 514-8422112 or pda.qc.ca) or CBCMusic.ca/MIMC at 7:30 p.m.