The eminent singer is noticeably concerned about all the contestants, sometimes even more than other participants, and tries to support literally everyone. In total, almost 800 applications in two specialties were submitted to the contest. In the face-to-face tests, 35 singers and 16 pianists from a dozen countries on three continents, including France, Brazil and South Africa, appeared before the jury. Under the terms of the competition, the competitive program in both nominations is one of the most intense and complex in international practice. It is impossible to win this contest with “old luggage”.
But the only thing most aspiring singers could boast of was their unreasonable courage to take on a repertoire that clearly did not suit their vocal nature. For some participants, of course, the performance was also affected by nerves. And proof of this is the departure after the first round of some young artists, for example, the Mariinsky or the Musical Theater. KS Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko.
And yet, the main problem is that aggressiveness dominates in the way of singing. The soloists do not play music while singing, but storm the notes, like climbers, often with incredible fear in their eyes, and not with the freedom, which is born of technical lightness, a sense of style, knowledge of the language in the one that is sung , and emotional fullness, and by no means strive for sound and word in a mysterious foreign language.
But there are many very interesting singers in the competition.
The favorites of the jury and the public do not always coincide. The referees generously left more than half of the participants in the fight. They will have difficult performances, not only solo and with an orchestra, but also in a duet with experienced colleagues.
But the escorts, whose competition lasted for two days, have already completed the campaign of competitive happiness. And here it is very important to point out that the tournament of opera accompanists is an almost exclusive and extremely important event. Without a pianist-coach, the development of a singer or the preparation of an opera work is not possible.
Photo: Evgeny Evtyukhov / Competition Directorate
As expected, the most difficult test for the accompanists was the final round, where it was necessary to demonstrate the ability to read a sheet and communicate with the soloist in the process. The second pianists sometimes found it even more difficult than the first. But the soloists of the Musical Theater named after KS Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko showed patience and endurance, which are rarely seen in real life. It is impossible not to notice that due to the fact that the age limit of the competition was raised to 42 years, in fact, adult musicians who had already served in the profession competed with young people of almost 20 years. Probably in the future it would be fair to hold a competition in two age groups.
Today, the places of the pianists on the podium of the competition were distributed as follows: First Prize – Vasily Popov, representing the Mariinsky Theater; Second Prize – Mark Vaza, artist of the Bolshoi Theater Youth Opera Program; Third Prize: Elena Vardazaryan from Armenia, Accompanist of the Yerevan Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet. Spendiaryan and the Conservatory. Komitas. And the favorite of the public was 22-year-old German Tarazanov from Novosibirsk. And the winners among the singers will be announced on January 22. The results of the I International Contest for vocalists and concertmasters of Khibla Gerzmava will be summarized below.
