Cardiff Singer of the World

[paraffin]

Right result?

[Mr Veritas]

The Russian Girl was a great singer,but I preferred the Counter Tenor.
Of course Counter Tenor's rarely win as I think judges tend to look on them as freaks.
It doesn't really matter,as he will have an International career ahead of him,as there is a great dearth of operatic Counter Tenor's at the moment.

[paraffin]

To be fair I thought any of the five could have won, they're all superb. And I must confess that I was glad to see the young Italian tenor was rewarded with the viewers' prize. What a future he has ahead of him!

As for the counter tenor, only a few have ever been in the competition apparently and I could have understood, from a rarity point of view, why he may have won.

But I think that what swung it for Shchebachenko was the Turandot aria which was genuinely moving. She had tears in her eyes at the end of it and even Mary King, the voice coach guest, was in floods by her own admission.

It was a brilliant week's viewing: pity we have to wait two years until the next one!

[Mr Veritas]

I do agree with you.
It's odd that having watched the competition since it started (many years ago) it seems to go in cycles.
This year any of the final 5 could have won,and would have deserved to.
Next time there will probably be an outstanding winner that eclipses all others,this is what I mean by cycles.
Every two years you get either an outstanding group,OR just one supreme singer.
It was unfortunate for the Japanese girl,and fortunate for the Russian entrant that they both sang arias for Liu.
The Japanese was good,but the Russian girl wiped out all memory of her predecessor.