In its new format, the Concours musical international de Montréal (CMIM) allowed ten singers to perform with an orchestra in the semi-finals on Monday and Tuesday with the OSM. Five elected officials will return to the Maison symphonique stage on Thursday.
Sarah Dufresne, Valerie Eickhoff, Hugo Laporte, Simone McIntosh and Nils Wanderer will be the finalists for the “Aria” component of the CMIM 2022, Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Maison symphonique. These candidates were chosen by Thomas Allen, Robert Holl, Adrianne Pieczonka, Christine Schäfer, Hartmut Höll, Richard Rodzinski and Renaud Loranger, a jury, chaired by Zarin Mehta.
Five Canadians had qualified at this stage of the event: sopranos Sarah Dufresne and Lauren Margison, mezzos Deepa Johnny and Simone McIntosh and baritone Hugo Laporte. Three are therefore survivors. Here’s our look at the two nights of semi-finals by voice type.
Candidates
Among the sopranos, Sarah Dufresne, a coloratura from Niagara Falls and currently at the Atelier lyrique, made a strong impression, especially in “Pâle et blonde”, the aria of madness from Ophélie from Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas. Lauren Margison has repeatedly highlighted the richness of her low register, but nevertheless chose “Signore ascolta”, the air of Liu from Turandot by Puccini, for which her voice is very opulent.
The three mezzo-sopranos have very different profiles. The German Valerie Eickhoff has the highest register. She’s ripe for the big stages, with her flawless vocals, bright highs and inherent class. She is a splendid artist. Representing Canada and the Sultanate of Oman, Deepa Johnny has a beautiful mezzo voice tending towards the serious, a beautiful Carmen in power, a bit like Rihab Chaieb. His “Asia” of Scheherazade (Ravel) had an admirable expressive modesty, his favorite register.
Between the two, Simone McIntosh, logical runner-up to Rose Naggar-Tremblay in the OSM Competition, elegant singer is one of the most classic mezzo, a Dorabella (cosi) and no doubt an effective Rossinian. She calmly approached her ordeal before wrapping it all up with a stunning “God!” What did I just hear? ” of Beatrice and Benedict by Berlioz with great impact and remarkable pronunciation.
Contrasting candidates
German countertenor Nils Wanderer is already on the way to a promising career. He notably worked with Edith Wiens and his schedule is full. His program with “Es ist vollbracht” from the St. John Passion and Purcell’s famous “Cold Song” was intended as a viaticum for the finale. It did not fail. This “Cold Song” however completely went off the rails at the end. No candidate has committed such a blunder on the two evenings and this should have earned him elimination at this stage.
What happiness to discover the Korean tenor Jihoon Son, the most generous candidate and pronunciation phenomenon, both in French and in Italian. The timbre has a slight nasal side but the artist is formidable. We would have liked to see him give us more.
The results concerning the baritones are more mixed and the three would have deserved to stop there. Bryan Murray, with a rather high-pitched voice, who we know from the “Mélodie” section, pulled out all the stops as the intellectual and profound elegiac interpreter, notably in Mahler’s “Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen”. In an opera competition, we would like to hear a variety of characters and in particular to see him sing at some point an air of a hero who gets a little nervous.
No particular comment on Hugo Laporte, whose solidity we know, but also the little cramped side and the lack of relief (we are very far from the Dupuis, Bintner and Sly who shone in this competition). We probably imagined him very happy and flattered to be in the semi-finals of an international competition. We dare not imagine now that he is in the final, just as we have no clue what could have brought him to this stage in the minds of the jury. The deepest bass-baritone voice, a little rougher, of the Ukrainian Vladyslav Buialsky was unevenly highlighted by his choice of repertoire: well in Faust and Macbeth, moderately in The Marriage of Figaro.
Favorites for the final? Eickhoff, Dufresne, McIntosh in that order. But with the eliminations and qualifications we’ve seen at various stages of the competition, anything is possible.
In the end, let’s highlight the formidable demanding work accomplished by the OSM, led by Olivier Thouin, and conductor Jacques Lacombe: ten candidates, thirty tunes to accompany in two days with a weekend of beats after a full week devoted to Ninth by Beethoven with Rafael Payare. It’s intense.