Cardiff Singer 2013

[gurnemanz]

I'm with Ian Burneside on this (The Song Prize). I would travel a long way to hear Ben Johnson's subtlety. Maybe at the live performance I would have been bowled over by the eventual winner, but not on the radio.

I agree on Ben Johnson and Bernarda Fink (who I love as a lieder performer) voted for him. The winner has undoubted qualities (and may also win the main prize) but I am with Draco above that it was more an operatic performance than a song recital

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i don't understand how the jury could possibly overlook that brilliant performance by Ben Johnson in favour of the American lady ...

[Mary Chambers]

Ben Johnson should have got it. Wonderful programming, beautiful singing, subtlety. The US mezzo is very, very good, but one might as well have been at the opera. That was not my idea of lieder singing. However, I was watching on television, (I think presentation is important, so like to see the singers), and we didn't hear the Purcell. The TV coverage was incomplete.

I suppose it is politically incorrect for me to say it, but Jamie Barton is too fat. Good voice she may have, but I don't want to look at her. She really needs to lose some weight, and it is nonsense to say it would affect her voice. There are plenty of reasonably built singers. She doesn't need to be skinny, just less huge.

I enjoyed the Ukrainian, too - Olena something.

[Bert Coules]

He was good, but too much trouble at his top, methinks, Bert.

Not ideal, I accept, and I was a little surprised to see him in the song final, but for stage work his intensity and involvement overrode any slight shortcomings for me. I know that the main event isn't billed as "Cardiff opera singer of the world" but that's pretty much what it is, and there's a good deal more to being a great opera performer than merely the singing.

Was I misinformed about the "singers aren't as fat as they used to be" feature on BBC Four? Perhaps it didn't happen at all.

[Mary Chambers]

Was I misinformed about the "singers aren't as fat as they used to be" feature on BBC Four? Perhaps it didn't happen at all.

No - Mary King did an item about this, but I can't remember which of the rounds featured it.

[Bert Coules]

No - Mary King did an item about this...

Ah, thanks. I'll take another stroll through the epsiodes on the iPlayer and see if I can find it.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

now there is a thought .... the lady is too fat to sing .... nothing will ever end!

but the argument is about artistic merit; Ben J gave a superb recital, profound, accomplished, moving and beautiful ... no other artist came close ... how could they ignore it, what was their choice all about?

you can vote for the audience prize here so long as you are logged into the bbc with a bbc id ... guess who will be getting my x?

[Richard Tarleton]

No - Mary King did an item about this, but I can't remember which of the rounds featured it.

There was a documentary a while ago on Sky Arts 2 tho' it may have been BBC4, on the subject of sizeable lady singers, featuring among others Deborah Voigt and her spat with the ROH, and Sharon Sweet, she of the Sweet Trolley [ROH, Turandot], who bears a worrying resemblance to, er, Jamie Barton.

Ben Johnson the clearly deserving winner last night. A beautifully judged recital, just what the song prize should be about. The other tenor had serious technical issues - he had to switch into a different [head] voice for his upper notes, can't think why he was in the final (but then I'd missed the rest of the week).

I couldn't quite see the point of Daniele de Niese on this occasion.

They're not going to give Jamie Barton both prizes are they?

[teamsaint]

There was a documentary a while ago on Sky Arts 2 tho' it may have been BBC4, on the subject of sizeable lady singers, featuring among others Deborah Voigt and her spat with the ROH, and Sharon Sweet, she of the Sweet Trolley [ROH, Turandot], who bears a worrying resemblance to, er, Jamie Barton.

Ben Johnson the clearly deserving winner last night. A beautifully judged recital, just what the song prize should be about. The other tenor had serious technical issues - he had to switch into a different [head] voice for his upper notes, can't think why he was in the final (but then I'd missed the rest of the week).

I couldn't quite see the point of Daniele de Niese on this occasion.

They're not going to give Jamie Barton both prizes are they?

Publicity?

[Richard Tarleton]

Publicity?

For who? She hardly needs it. She might have thought doing the airhead interviews a bit beneath her dignity, she'd have been better off being one of the pundidts or else politely declining, I'd have thought. But what do I know

[teamsaint]

For who? She hardly needs it. She might have thought doing the airhead interviews a bit beneath her dignity, she'd have been better off being one of the pundidts or else politely declining, I'd have thought. But what do I know

no such thing as bad (or too little) of the stuff. And she is pretty good at getting it.
Besides, a TV (or whatever) career when all that singing and touring gets too much won't hurt, and its never too soon to network.

So, can't blame her, but she is spectacularly irritating.

[Richard Tarleton]

she is spectacularly irritating.

[Nick Armstrong]

I couldn't quite see the point of Daniele de Niese

[Lancashire Lass]

Never mind Daniele de Niese, why do they have to do this banal interviews anyway, when the answers are pretty self-evident ("How much does winning the CSOTW mean to you?" etc.) Of course it's the usual Beeb obsession with pre-contest celebrity interviews, from Strictly to the Wimbledon tennis final. No doubt they think it makes "esoteric" subjects accessible to the great unwashed.

I agree with the shock on here about last night's result. I'm no expert on lieder, but even watching on TV, BJ's voice seemed to compress time and space, as if he were drawing me into his own intimate circle with an invisible cord. An extraordinary feeling which I've never felt before, and for the first time it made me want to go to a song recital for its own sake, rather than just because it's the only way to see a celebrated singer if you can't get tickets at the opera.

I know the result stands, but especially given the flexible approach of the winner to the spirit, if not the letter, of leider competition rules, do any of these competition juries ever get their own performance reviewed at all? After all, we are in the age of scrutiny and all that. I would imagine there are some sparks flying behind the scenes down in Cardiff at the moment.

[verismissimo]

Just caught up with Ben Johnson's recital on the iPlayer. So, so good.
How can they have looked past it? By far the most excellent!
Maybe they thought it was too narrow in its range?