{"id":54294,"date":"2018-05-31T10:25:54","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T14:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=54294"},"modified":"2018-05-31T10:25:54","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T14:25:54","slug":"cmim-2018-day-two-aria-competition-first-round-sessions-1-2-inches-closer-to-semi-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2018\/05\/31\/cmim-2018-day-two-aria-competition-first-round-sessions-1-2-inches-closer-to-semi-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"CMIM 2018 | Day Two: Aria Competition First Round (Sessions 1 & 2) Inches Closer To Semi-Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Emily
Emily D’Angelo holds court at CMIM 2018 (Photo: Tam Lan Truong)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MONTR\u00c9AL \u2014 Following the excellent Art Song First Round yesterday<\/a>\u00a0at the 2018\u00a0Concours<\/em>\u00a0musical international de\u00a0<\/strong>Montr\u00e9al (CMIM)<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/em>today we had the First Round of the Aria Division, in two sessions at Salle Bourgie, featuring sixteen singers:<\/p>\n

Session One<\/em>: Carolyn Sproule (Canada), mezzo-soprano; ByeongMin Gil (South Korea), bass; Dilyara Idrisova (Russia), soprano; Kidon Choi (South Korea), baritone; Mihail Mihaylov (Bulgaria), tenor; Christina Nilsson (Sweden), soprano; ChanHee Cho (South Korea, bass; Emily D’Angelo (Canada-Italy), mezzo-soprano.<\/p>\n

Session Two<\/em>: Alexandra Yangel (Russia), mezzo-soprano; Andrew Haji (Canada), tenor; Anush Hovhannisyan (Arm\u00e9nia), soprano; Jongsoo Yang (South Korea), bass; Konstantin Lee (South Korea), tenor; Lauren Margison (Canada), soprano; Oleksandr Kyreiev (Ukraine), baritone; Olga Rudyk (Ukraine), soprano.<\/p>\n

There will be a third session on Thursday evening, for a total of 24 competitors, from which 12 will move on to the semi-finals. In all honesty, the level was so high today that one easily fills the semi-finals roster with the competitors today. The jury panel will have a difficult task ahead!<\/p>\n

The afternoon session opened with Canadian mezzo Carolyn Sproule<\/strong>, who recently made her COC debut as Maddalena in Rigoletto<\/em>. A high mezzo, Octavian\u2019s \u201cWie du warst\u201d from Der Rosenkavalier<\/em> suits her, and she sang with attractive, smooth tone, if with a touch too pronounced a vibrato, especially in the beginning. Her other pieces were Dalila\u2019s \u201cPrintemps qui commence\u201d and an aria from Maria Stuarda<\/em>. It\u2019s a lovely voice, smooth and evenly produced, perhaps with not ideally clear diction and sufficient variation in tone colours. Young Korean bass ByeongMin Gil<\/strong> followed with arias from Giulio Cesare<\/em> and La sonnambula,<\/em> the latter complete with cabaletta. Very well sung, if slightly dry of tone.<\/p>\n

\"Christina
Christina Nilsson at CMIM 2018 (Photo: Tam Lan Truong)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Up next was Russian soprano Dilyara Idrisova<\/strong>, singing with excellent coloratura an aria from Handel\u2019s Hercules<\/em>, followed by a Mozart concert aria and one from Vivaldi\u2019s Bajazet<\/em>.\u00a0 All dispatched with exemplary agility. South Korean baritone Kidon Choi<\/strong> sang Ford\u2019s aria from Falstaff<\/em> very dramatically.\u00a0 The same can be said for \u201cCruda fenestra smania\u201d from Lucia<\/em>, and conclude with a very dramatic aria from Mazeppa<\/em>. I find him a bit over the top, while a more nuanced approach would be nice.<\/p>\n

Good tenors are in short supply, and a voice as fine as Bulgarian tenor Mihail Mihaylov<\/strong>\u2019s is rare. He sang a wonderful \u201cKuda, kuda,\u201d Lensky\u2019s aria from Eugene Onegin<\/em>, followed by a clarion-toned \u201cChe gelida manina\u201d complete with a very good high C. He ended his program with an affecting \u201cPourquoi me reveiller\u201d from Werther<\/em>. To my ears, Mr. Mihaylov was the star contestant up to that point \u2013 that is until the next singer, Swedish soprano Christina Nilsson<\/strong>, stepped up. What a voice Nilsson has!\u00a0 When it\u2019s as good as hers, it\u2019s perfectly alright to be so audacious as to start with the daunting \u201cO patria mia,\u201d hardly ever done in competitions. She followed with a gorgeous \u201cFr\u00fchling\u201d from Vier letzte Lieder<\/em>, finished with \u201cDich teure Halle\u201d from Tannhauser<\/em> \u2013 full marks for Ms. Nilsson!<\/p>\n

Korean bass ChanHee Cho<\/strong> has a very impressive instrument, and sang La calunnia beautifully, followed by a rare choice, Alvise\u2019s aria from La Gioconda<\/em>, all dispatched with aplomb. The afternoon session ended with Canadian mezzo Emily D\u2019Angelo<\/strong>, who has already won the Met Auditions two years ago, at the incredible age of 21.\u00a0 She keeps getting better and better. She sang three showstoppers, the Rosina aria, which is her calling card, plus a brilliant \u201cParto, parto,\u201d one of the most daunting of mezzo arias.\u00a0 To my ears, she and Christine Nilsson are the early favourites to move onto the next round.<\/p>\n

The evening session started off with Russian high mezzo Alexandra Yangel<\/strong>, singing arias by Meyerbeer, Rossini and Mozart. Her agility was excellent, to go with a very nice trill and strong theatricality, with temperament to burn. Then it was Canadian tenor Andrew Haji<\/strong>, who is well known to Toronto audiences. Haji won big a couple of years ago in \u2018s-Hertogenbosch voice competition in Holland. Last night, he sang the short and sweet \u201cQuesta o quella\u201d from Rigoletto, followed by an aria from Tamelano<\/em>, which showed off his agility and long breath-line. He ended with his calling card and his good luck charm, \u201cUna furtiva lagrima,\u201d once again delivered with melting tone.<\/p>\n

Armenian soprano Anush Hovhannisyan<\/strong> is a very rare dramatic coloratura. Her timbre is rich and plummy, with brilliant high notes and long breath-line. She also has a stately persona. Her choices showed off her amazing instrument \u2014 \u201cBel raggio lusinghier\u201d from Semiramide<\/em>, followed by Fr\u00fchling, first song in Vier letzte Lieder<\/em>. She ended with an aria from Mitridate, Re di Ponto<\/em>, showing off her stunning fioritura. This is a voice to watch. Korean Jongsoo Yang<\/strong> is a budding basso cantante<\/em>, possessing a very fine instrument, combined with a tall, youthful, attractive stage presence. He sang an excellent \u201cLa vendetta\u201d from Nozze<\/em>, acting to the hilt, okay, maybe somewhat over-the-top! \u00a0He also sang Rocco\u2019s \u201cHat mannicht auch\u201d from Fidelio<\/em> very nicely. Strangely, the bass solo from Die Sch<\/em>\u00f6pfung<\/em> found him using the score. Even if using the music in oratorio is permitted and he didn\u2019t really refer to it, it\u2019s still not a great idea in a competition.<\/p>\n

He was followed by Korean tenor Konstantin Lee, <\/strong>who has quite a good instrument. However, he used it in what one might call a \u201cVerismo Overdrive\u201d mode, too overwrought much of the time, in both Frederico\u2019s Lament and \u201cDein ist mein ganzes Herz,\u201d frankly stylistically problematic. Ukrainian baritone Oleksandr Kyreiev<\/strong> also has a tendency to push his voice, causing a slow vibrato to develop and distorting his arias from Manon<\/em> and Iolanta<\/em>. Much too hard driven all the time. \u00a0Canadian soprano Lauren Margison<\/strong>, who is joining the COC Ensemble next season, has a beautiful full lyric soprano with gleaming tone. She sang a beautiful Jewel Song from Faust\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 sans trill \u2014 and a very fine Porgi amor from Nozze<\/em>. \u00a0The evening concluded with Ukrainian soprano Olga Rudyk<\/strong> in \u201cCome scoglio\u201d from Cosi,<\/em> followed by Liu\u2019s aria and Song to the Moon from Rusalka<\/em>, all dispatched with fine technique and musicality, if not particularly distinctive tone.<\/p>\n

There you have it \u2014 some very fine singing in both sessions. Sixteen singers, vast majority of them performed well enough to be deserving of moving on to the next round.<\/p>\n

The third session is scheduled Thursday evening 7:30 p.m. from Salle Bourgie. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n

Follow our coverage of CMIM 2018 HERE<\/a><\/span>.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ludwig van Toronto continues our coverage from the 2018\u00a0Concours\u00a0musical international de\u00a0Montr\u00e9al, which yesterday saw 16 singers battle it out in the Aria Division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":54299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14761,20200,17,9567,52,70],"tags":[6179,4839],"yst_prominent_words":[20207,20204,20201,11030,20210,20172,20208,20205,20202,8544,8643,20186,20209,20203,12493,6640,20184,20183,20206,20185],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/05\/emily_dangelo_cmim_2018.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-e7I","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54294"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54294"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54302,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54294\/revisions\/54302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54294"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=54294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}