From Russia with love
The laureate concert of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Ghent (****) [live]
The laureate concerts of the Queen Elisabeth Competition are a suitable opportunity for fine tuning the impressions gained during the live stream sessions of the competition. For me, Julia Muzychenko was by far the winner of the competition. The jury judged differently. If the concert in Ghent proved anything it was that the jury was wrong.
I often used to avoid the concert hall of De Bijloke because of its problematic acoustics. The covering of the walls with three-meter-high hardwood beams is undoubtedly an improvement: the string sound is warm, the solo passages are nicely defined. One hears no nasty reflections in the hall, but do the renovated walls also help ensure sufficient detail in the sound image of the orchestra's forte passages? I'm not so sure about that.
Few overtures are better suited to open this kind of concert than the overture to La Forza del destino. Alejo Perez, the agile conductor at the head of the Symphonic Orchestra Opera Ballet Flanders, made it the golden classic it should be. With the three hammer blows of fate, the Italian sense of drama soon took possession of the room, soon followed by the bittersweet melancholy of "Le minacce," a melody that made the Leuven brewer Stella Artois sell crates of beer and helped Claude Berri's Provençal melodrama "Jean de Florette" to a soundtrack. While the choice of repertoire for this evening is almost exclusively Italian, it is not always in good taste.
Inho Jeong was allowed to kick off with "Come dal ciel precipita" (Macbeth) and "La calunia è un venticello." Jeong's diction of Italian was rather problematic, not uncommon among Korean singers. I also detected little sense of rubato in this singer to make this music his own. The least engaging music was chosen by mezzo Juliette Mey: "Nacqui al'affanno, al pianto" (Cenerentola) and "Nobles seigneurs, salut!" (Les Huguenots). Demonstrating technique to convince a jury is one thing but betting on pieces that have no future is another. Should I then doubt her musical intelligence? The jury was not taken in by the hollow virtuosity of these bleating bravura pieces.
Contest winner Taehan Kim then surprised with "Ce breuvage pourrait me donner un tel rêve" (Hérodiade), delivered with a somewhat unexpected capacity for empathy and articulated with very decent French in a charming dialogue with the voice of Vincent Alpaerts alto saxophone. Even more surprising was that he could exist alongside Julia Muzychenko's naughty Norina in "Pronto io son" (Don Pasquale). It even became a sparkling duet in which Kim managed to hit the vis comica of the piece. For a moment, the impression arose with me of seeing one of the most musical Asians at work that I had ever heard. Muzychenko for her part was able to instantly strike a chord with her sensual timbre, fabulous technique, problem-free register transitions, naturalness of expression and spectacular high notes. Thus, the first part of the concert went off like a real crescendo. The real litmus test would follow after intermission.
The overture to Le nozze di Figaro featured both the humour and excitement of Mozart's "folle journée." Perez made it sound like an invitation to the ongoing production at Opera Vlaanderen.
Jasmin White was the disappointment of the evening. Why the judges awarded her second prize is a complete mystery to me. In the chest register, the voice projects rather poorly. In "Cruda sorte - Qua ci vuol disinvoltura" (L'Italiana in Algeri) and "Ah, quel giorno ?" (Semiramide) she showed little personality and no overly agile vocal resources to shine in these bel canto pieces. Her rare voice type (contralto) sets her apart but also condemns her to a limited repertoire. Elgar's "Where corals lie" (Sea pictures) was not a piece to score with. And why was her duet with Muzychenko from Lakmé cancelled?
The overture to La Traviata had not been announced in the program. Perez rolled it out like a red carpet for the predictable highlight of the evening: with "E strano" Muzychenko could once again demonstrate her maturity and interpretative skills. "Croce e delizia" she got to resonate between heaven and hell, the spinto parts and coloratura of "Sempre libera" she generously sprinkled over the heads of the audience who responded appropriately with the most applause of the evening.
Taehan Kim could not repeat his exploit of the first part. "Carlos écoute - Ah, je meurs" (Don Carlos) he was unable to lift above mediocrity. His delivery once again sounded flat and impersonal. Here was no new Ludovic Tézier in the making. And what is there to prove with a melancholy bonbon like "Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen" (Die Tote Stadt)? Taehan Kim is currently still singing very small roles in Berlin, deep into 2024. Whether this contest will be the dream career boost for him is not at all certain.
Recognizing the talent of supersopranos is really not difficult. Didn't I predict the great careers of Nina Stemme, Anna Netrebko, Elina Garanca, Aida Garifullina, Venera Gimadieva, Elena Stikhina, Elena Guseva, and each time from the very beginning? Julia Muzychenko has eclipsed everyone at this competition. She also has everything for the great career: the looks, the voice, musicality, a kind of natural talent to move on a stage and the communicative skill to deal with an audience. Muzychenko is a dream for any director. Anyone who doubts her stage persona should check out her Oksana in Rimsky-Korsakov's Christmas Eve in Frankfurt, not coincidentally the Opernwelt production of the year 21/22. Why doesn't the jury, which I presume wants to see the prestige of the competition reflected in the great careers of its laureates, know that? The fact that perhaps a Russian soprano was not supposed to win is a thought that is not only strange, it was also predictable. What if Muzychenko had been born in Dikanka, Oksana's Ukrainian village? At the same time, I notice that in Cardiff Singer of the World, the "competitive" competition that comes to a close next Sunday, there is not a single Russian artist in the final. Isn't that surprising once you know that Russia is the biggest supplier of top talent in the opera business. Coincidentally, the UK is the most Russophobic country in Europe today. Congratulations !