{"id":54461,"date":"2018-06-05T17:29:52","date_gmt":"2018-06-05T21:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=54461"},"modified":"2018-06-05T17:29:52","modified_gmt":"2018-06-05T21:29:52","slug":"cmim-2018-canadians-take-it-up-a-notch-in-semi-finals-session-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2018\/06\/05\/cmim-2018-canadians-take-it-up-a-notch-in-semi-finals-session-1\/","title":{"rendered":"CMIM 2018 | Canadians Take It Up A Notch In Semi-Finals (Session 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"CMIM
Andrew Haji sings with Orchestre symphonique de Montr\u00e9al, conductor: Graeme Jenkins at\u00a0Concours<\/em>\u00a0musical international de\u00a0<\/strong>Montr\u00e9al<\/strong><\/em> (Photo: Tam Lan Truong)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MONTREAL \u2014 After having watched the\u00a0Concours<\/em>\u00a0musical international de\u00a0<\/strong>Montr\u00e9al (CMIM)<\/strong><\/em> Competitions through live streaming the past week, I finally made it to Montreal for the second week of the competition.<\/p>\n

This afternoon, as I was sitting in Salle Bourgie for American pianist\/coach Warren Jones\u2019s masterclass, I was reminded of the 50-year-old Marvin Gaye song, \u201cAin\u2019t Nothin\u2019 Like The Real Thing!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 To be sure, live streaming has been fantastic, but it doesn\u2019t replace being there in person.<\/p>\n

For one thing, listening on the web doesn\u2019t give us any idea about the size of the voice, and how it carries in the hall. I found Salle Bourgie has what one might call a \u201cchurch acoustic,\u201d one that is overly reverberant. There is none of that in a live stream, probably due to microphone placement. While it\u2019s great that we can see all the facial expressions and dramatic nuances on our computer screen, it isn\u2019t the same for a live audience seeing the performance at a much greater distance. One has to be there to properly gauge the dynamic exchange between the soloist and the audience.<\/p>\n

This evening was the first of the Aria Semi-Finals, at the (relatively) new Maison Symphonique. \u00a0The hall will look familiar to Toronto opera fans, as it has the same architect \u2014 Jack Diamond \u2014 as the Four Seasons Centre.\u00a0 The acoustics is also very fine, without the echoey ambience of Salle Bourgie. Six singers each presented approximately twenty minutes of music, involving anywhere from three to six arias, depending on length. Songs are acceptable as long as they are orchestrated. Graeme Jenkins led the Orchestre Symphonique de Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n

Kicking off the proceedings was Russian soprano Dilyara Idrisova<\/strong>, in a program of Glinka, Bach, and Mozart. \u00a0She showed off an attractive, cool timbre, exemplary flexibility with truly impressive runs, particularly in Mitridate Re di Ponto<\/em>, the occasional lunging for stratospheric high notes notwithstanding. \u00a0Her steady, even emission was lovely in the soprano-instrumental duo section in \u201cZerfliesse, mein Herz\u201d from Johannes-Passion<\/em>. I would have liked a bit more stylistic differentiation between the three pieces, especially the Glinka which came quite a lot later. Her diction could be clearer, although the law of acoustics is such that textual clarity becomes a challenge when sopranos sing above the stave.<\/p>\n

South Korean baritone Kidon Choi<\/strong> was very impressive in the First Round, excellent in the two Italian showstoppers from Falstaff<\/em> and Lucia<\/em>. Here he sang Barnaba\u2019s aria from the rarely performed La Gioconda<\/em>, followed by Zurga\u2019s aria from Pearl Fishers<\/em> and ended with \u201cPieta, rispetto from Macbeth<\/em>. He possesses a booming, hall-filling sound, very Italianate in timbre, with plenty of dramatic urgency and an amazing top register. That said, this evening his singing suffered from the occasional pitch issues, sounding occasionally flat in both the Ponchielli and the Verdi, marring what was otherwise a fine performance.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed Bulgarian tenor Mihail Mihaylov\u2019s beautiful \u201cKuda, kuda\u201d in the First Round, and was glad he made it to the semis. Tonight, he sang \u201cUna furtiva lagrima\u201d with plaintive tone, lovely mezza voce<\/em> and good textual clarity. \u201cCujus animam\u201d from Rossini\u2019s Stabat Mater<\/em> is a tough piece, as it goes up to a C sharp. He was cautious and backed away from the high note, which lasted half a second and a bit flat. It was unfortunate as he as a very fine voice, in this aria his timbre even recalled the great Luciano Pavarotti.\u00a0 This seemed to have unnerved him, and he took a full minute with his back to the audience, probably to psyche himself up before he was ready for the last piece, \u201cDi rigori amato\u201d\u00a0 from Der Rosenkavalier<\/em>. I am sorry to say he backing off the high notes again. Such are the vagaries of voice competitions!<\/p>\n

\"CMIM
Emily D’Angelo with Orchestre symphonique de Montreal, conductor: Graeme Jenkins (Photo: Tam Lan Truong)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Canadian mezzo Emily D\u2019Angelo<\/strong> was next. She already won the Met Auditions at 21. Now only 23, she is singing major roles but still young enough to compete. She sang Dorabella\u2019s \u201cSmania implacabile\u201d from Cosi<\/em> with gleaming tone and temperament to burn. An aria from Ariodante<\/em> was marked by fabulous fioritura, rhythmic precision and long breath-line. The audience gave her a rousing ovation, the first genuine bit of excitement of the evening. She finished with three Alban Berg songs from Sieben fr<\/em>\u00fche Lieder<\/em>, a favourite song cycle of mine. It can be sung by both sopranos and mezzos, and D\u2019Angelo showed off a great high register in the climactic high B in \u201cDie Nachtigall.\u201d Her \u201cTraumgekr\u00f6nt\u201d was equally lovely, although I would have preferred a more hushed high piano<\/em>. It there was a blemish, it was not from the mezzo but from the orchestra. Perhaps due to insufficient rehearsals, there were surprisingly messy instrument balances in both \u201cTraumgekr\u00f6nt\u201d and \u201cSommertage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canadian tenor Andrew Haji followed with an absolutely glorious Alfredo\u2019s \u201cDe\u2019miei bollenti spiriti,\u201d a role he has already sung on stage. He also sang Tamino\u2019s \u201cDies Bildnis\u201d perfectly, with elegant tone, great German diction and excellent sense of pitch. It helps that he has already sung both complete roles on stage! He expressions in these two arias were highly nuanced and detailed, something that only comes with experience. The aria \u201cJe crois entendre encore\u201d is a piece that requires excellent technical control, and he did it very beautifully.\u00a0 However, I was surprised he omitted the last line, which rises to a pianissimo high B, sometimes sung in falsetto. \u00a0Granted this line was not in the original Bizet but interpolated later by tenors. But like the E-flat in \u201cSempre libera\u201d or the high B in Federico\u2019s Lament from L\u2019Arlesiana<\/em>, avid opera fans like me do miss it. \u00a0Haji concluded his program with \u201cEn fermant les yeux\u201d from Manon<\/em>, sung with sweet tone and lovely mezza voce. \u00a0Full marks for Haji.<\/p>\n

The final competitor was South Korean bass Jongsoo Yang, who began with \u201cNon piu andrai\u201d from Nozze<\/em>, sung with wonderful, youthful tone.\u00a0 He followed with a very impressive \u201cLa calunna\u201d from Barbiere<\/em>.\u00a0 With all due respect to Yang, to my ears, his voice at 28 is more that of a bass-baritone. That said, bass voices take a long time to mature, so he may well become a \u201ctrue\u201d bass in the future. For now, he\u2019s a very impressive low voice singer with a spectacular high register, coupled with a tall and attractive stage appearance. The only fly in the ointment was his choice of the bass aria from Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/em>, the only piece where his fast vibrato (bordering on tremolo) became evident. In spite of this misfire, it was a very fine performance.<\/p>\n

There you have it. The first half of the Aria Semifinals. I think I can say without bias that top honours of this session belonged to the two Canadians, Emily D\u2019Angelo and Andrew Haji. I look forward to the second half of the Semis on Tuesday, June 5.<\/p>\n

You can watch the competition live on YouTube<\/a>, as well as from their\u00a0Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0and their\u00a0website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Follow our daily 2018 CMIM coverage\u00a0HERE<\/span><\/a>.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto’s Andrew Haji and Emily D’Angelo hold their own against strong competition at the CMIM 2018 Arias Semi-finals in Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":54464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14761,20200,17,9567,70],"tags":[279,6179,4839,5671],"yst_prominent_words":[7539,20178,20175,20173,20488,12700,8544,20472,20180,20462,20181,20174,18411,6667,6668,20209,20203,11893,18410,20206],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/06\/SemiFinalAria-9.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-eap","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54461"}],"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=54461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54466,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54461\/revisions\/54466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54461"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=54461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}