The final phases of the “Mélodie” section of the Montreal International Music Competition were held on Friday and Sunday, a competition opposing, ultimatelyan English soprano, and an American soprano and baritone.
It is only Thursday evening, after the final of the operatic component “Aria”, that we will know which of the Englishwoman Harriet Burns, or the Americans Meredith Wohlgemuth and Bryan Murray won the component “Melody” of “Voice 2022”, the Montreal International Music Competition (CMIM) devoted this year to singing. The very high level of this competition shows the interest of the shift made in 2018 by the CMIM.
Six “finalists”
The addition of a section devoted to melody was the dream of Toronto patron and amateur James Norcop, who, in the 2000s, tried in vain to organize a competition of its kind in Toronto. The only wish of this melody fanatic was that melody should not be the poor relation of opera. The prices should therefore be the same.
Montreal thus attracts excellent international singers, especially since the CMIM allows them to compete with their own pianist, with a prize of $5,000 being offered to the best.
In this year 2022, the quality is such that Friday evening, a “semi-final” with six candidates, was almost a final in its own right. Very clever who could have predicted before the jury’s verdict the qualification of Burns, Murray and Wohlgemuth, both the performances of the English baritone Michael Lafferty, the impressive Swedish baritone Arvid Fagerfjäll and the Canadian mezzo Deepa Johnny, originally from the Sultanate of Oman, were noteworthy.
No doubt Bryan Murray knew how to bend to the subtlety of the genre with more humble flexibility than his colleagues. He, for example, sang Sunday in the final the romance op. 4 by Rachmaninoff that we are more used to hearing in a female voice. At this last stage our slight preference is for distilled emotion, especially in Meine Rose of Schumann and Wie Melodien by Brahms, by Meredith Wohgemuth whose program for the final was very eclectic.
Half Canadians
Now up to the “Aria” section. New in the 2022 edition: the configuration of the final phase has been modified. Instead of two final nights, ten semi-finalists on Monday and Tuesday will present a 14 to 18 minute program which must include three tunes in at least two different languages. The six best singers and singers will advance to the final on Thursday.
Two candidates for the “Melody” test have qualified for this opera competition: baritone Bryan Murray and mezzo Deepa Johnny, who will be heard on Tuesday. Five of the ten semi-finalists are Canadian: sopranos Sarah Dufresne, Lauren Margison, mezzos Deepa Johnny, Simone McIntosh and baritone Hugo Laporte. The jury was therefore deprived of singers such as Rose Naggar-Tremblay, Anna-Sophie Neher or the young Sophie Naubert.
The other five candidates are a Ukrainian bass, Vladyslav Buialskyi; Korean tenor Jihoon Son, American Bryan Murray, and, from Germany, mezzo Valerie Eickhoff and countertenor Nils Wanderer. The Orchester symphonique de Montréal will be conducted by Jacques Lacombe during the semi-finals and the final at the Maison symphonique.