Celebrating 30 Years BBC Cardiff Singer of the World

The search for the next BBC Cardiff Singer of the World began last year.

This is not just a local competition in Cardiff.

This is a worldwide event.

We are constantly looking for new operatic stars

to feed the operatic system.

Everyone in the business knows that it's one of

the most important competitions in the world.

Valentina Nafornita.

It's a big title.

To have that name attached to yours - I wouldn't mind it.

Over 400 young opera singers entered,

with 52 selected for auditions around the world.

We're always looking for the best possible candidates.

Those voices that give you that tingle, that you think,

"This is a different voice, this is a special voice."

In this, the competition's 30th anniversary year,

20 of the world's best young singers have made it through

to compete in Cardiff, all of them

hoping to lift the Cardiff Singer trophy and take their place

on the distinguished list of winners.

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World really launched my career.

Winning that competition was a very special moment for me.

It actually changed my life.

It's where everything started. And we're still counting.

This is a celebration of 30 years of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.

1983. The pound coin was first introduced in the UK.

Margaret Thatcher was returned to power

on a wave of post-Falklands patriotism.

And music entered the digital age,

as CDs hit the shops for the first time.

In Cardiff, a new world-class concert hall opened its doors.

Keen to take advantage of the new St David's Hall,

BBC Wales producer Mervyn Williams came up with the idea

of an event to show off the hall to the world.

I thought of this idea of having a competition.

I thought it came from a Welsh background

of the Eisteddfod and so on. I thought, yes, that might work.

To make his idea happen, Mervyn joined forces

with Welsh National Opera and Cardiff City Council,

but he would also need the help of broadcasters from around the world

to find the singers.

I was head of music in the Finnish broadcasting company TV1

and Mervyn Williams came to a meeting

and he said to us that "We're going to establish a competition

"in Cardiff, would you be interested in that?"

And I remember that we were two countries, Belgium and myself,

who immediately said yes, we are in. And that's how it started.

Broadcasters from 18 countries sent singers to Cardiff.

For me to be invited to a BBC singing competition

was like a lottery win for a young singer.

It was like a dream.

I was just excited about everything.

I was 18, and I'd just really started taking singing seriously.

Thought in terms of making a career out of it.

And I was chosen, and off I went.

Chaired by legendary Welsh baritone Sir Geraint Evans,

an international panel of singers

and industry professionals was assembled.

And so Cardiff Singer of the World was born.

You never know what to expect with a new competition.

But there had been a lot of, a lot of thought put into this one.

There was a lot of excitement,

a lot of talk had been going on for a couple of years

leading up to the actual event.

So, you know, the air was kind of full of the feeling that this

was going to be an important new televised competition.

# The deeps have music soft and low... #

From the start, the competition

set out to find the opera stars of the future.

The entrants included an 18-year-old mezzo-soprano from Ireland

named Patricia Bardon.

I didn't have any expectations.

I was completely naive, for sure.

Perhaps even...

One of the first times I'd sung with a symphony orchestra, easily.

What we weren't sure about was what allowance we would have to make

for experience versus promise.

In fact, it didn't work out that way, because it was the youngest voices,

as it turned out, who had the most extraordinary artistic maturity.

Donna Anna.

Oh, my God. I was so bold.

It's a question of showing your potential.

Maybe singing an aria

that you wouldn't be ready to sing the whole part,

but showing the way your voice might develop in the future.

The entire role would have killed me, but I didn't know that.

Luckily, I only needed to sing the aria, and I won!

Karita just had it all, even at that age.

She had a poise, she had an exquisite voice.

You could see already the talent and the energy

and personality were there.

Although I think she would admit

that she wasn't a fully formed singer when she won it,

she turned out to be

one of the outstanding singers of our age.

APPLAUSE

Karita Mattila's win helped Cardiff Singer declare itself to the world.

The competition was a huge success, and would return two years later.

Then, the title went to the American baritone David Malis.

He was followed in 1987 by Italian coloratura soprano Valeria Esposito.

But it was another performance that year

that started the competition organisers thinking.

The performance of "Lieder", or "art song", alongside operatic arias

had been part of the competition since it started, but a performance

by Finland's Soile Isokoski helped convince the organisers that

a separate Lieder prize should be awarded at the next competition.

What couldn't have been predicted was the drama

that would unfold during the 1989 Final.

Local boy Bryn Terfel was up against unknown Russian

Dmitri Hvorostovsky in what became a battle between two baritones.

Everyone talks about Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Bryn Terfel.

That evening was incredible.

You had two absolutely outstanding talents.

I mean, they were so young.

Those were giant talents.

It was really a remarkable occasion,

and I felt it was a moment of history.

APPLAUSE I'm sitting with Elisabeth Soderstrom,

the great Swedish soprano, and on stage

comes this Russian baritone looking sensational.

And I look over at Elisabeth, and on her pad of paper,

she puts an exclamation point as soon as he walks out.

By the time he'd finished, her page was full of exclamation points.

This first time of hearing that voice,

singing a piece which suited him really well,

was a real thrill.

MUSIC: "Eri tu che macchiavi" by Verdi

The way Dmitri handled the Verdi

was masterly for a young boy.

I mean, quite unbelievable.

What Hvorostovsky had and still has

is that wonderful velvety Russian sound

that can spin long lines in Verdi

and give the sort of dark brooding quality to Tchaikovsky.

Dmitri had incredible star quality, which he still has, but so did Bryn.

He was brimming with talent in a most extraordinary way.

It wasn't as refined quite yet.

He has the hard to quantify but easy to recognise

qualities of a superstar singer.

He has extraordinary dramatic intensity,

theatrical charisma, he makes audiences love him.

And he had that from the first day, I imagine, that he opened his mouth.

The thing that always amazes me

about Bryn is the focus on the delivery of the text.

The way that he performs the meaning of every single phrase that

he sings with extraordinary intensity and nuance.

When you hear Bryn singing Wagner, particularly, and you get

the intensity of delivery,

you realise what a precious thing that is.

I think I gave Dmitri a 9.85 and Bryn a 9.8.

It was so close that it was a hair.

The winner is Dmitri Hvorostovsky.

APPLAUSE

Bryn may have been pipped at the post by Dmitri,

but it was a battle that has become part of Cardiff Singer folklore.

To have those two baritones competing in '89

was sure to put Cardiff Singer on the map.

1989 was a remarkable year for Cardiff Singer, Dmitri taking

the main prize and Bryn establishing the credentials of

the Lieder Prize in its first year.

It's continued as a highly valued part of Cardiff Singer ever since.

It's a much more refined atmosphere of making music when

you have the intimacy of a piano and just the singer standing there.

There's nowhere to hide.

It gives a different aspect of the singer's art, really.

It's the same voice, but it's a different approach.

# Heart

# We will forget him... #

Song needs a different sort of communication.

You have a different interaction working with piano than with

full orchestra and that is a very intimate relationship.

# Ah-oh... #

You've no costumes, you've no set to hide behind.

It's all you, it's the words, it's the text.

It's a different animal. You can be a lot more subtle with it.

You can add a lot more colours

because you're not singing over a full orchestration.

The world of arias tends to be exploring emotional extremes -

I'm so terribly happy, I'm so terribly sad.

My lover has just died, I'm about to die.

Song is often about less extreme things than that.

SHE SINGS

It's a part of me.

I'm doing both concerts and recitals and opera,

so it's natural to do both.

I think it's fantastic that Cardiff Singer has this separate song prize.

An opera singer should study and sing a song repertory

because the attention to musical nuance

and colouring that you need to work on in miniature in a song

is what also helps make special a performance in opera.

Song repertoire presents very specific challenges

for the singer and in some instances it puts

the accompanist under enormous pressure too.

Ingrid Surgenor played for me and that was wonderful.

This was the first time we had done something major together

and then, of course,

what did I do but say I was going to be singing Schubert's Erlkonig,

which is a graveyard for many, many accompanists.

It's a difficult piece, it's like running a marathon.

You've got to do a lot of warming up beforehand.

It doesn't just happen just like that. It's really complicated.

Their performance must have impressed the jury that year

as Neal walked away with 1991's Lieder Prize title.

The main prize that year went to Australian Lisa Gasteen,

who went on to become one of opera's great Wagnerian sopranos.

The Brits have never done specially well in winning

the main prize at Cardiff, but have been dazzling in the song prize,

where they are second to none.

We had, famously, Bryn, but also from Wales, Neal Davies.

Chris Maltman representing the baritones of England. Andrew Kennedy.

Elizabeth Watts is a soprano.

Then I think we can count as an honorary Brit Ailish Tynan,

representing Ireland, but I think we have to include her in this.

Very popular choice indeed.

In a move to improve the overall standard of the competition,

1993 saw the introduction of worldwide auditions.

No longer would singers be selected for Cardiff

by their country's broadcaster.

It would also be the first year that the competition would be

won by a singer that didn't win their round.

Inger Dam-Jensen. APPLAUSE

I was really, really surprised and I'm sure everybody could

look at me and see that it was how I felt at that time.

-Listen to that crowd!

-She was absolutely fantastic.

-You have to hand it to her.

-I was in a kind of shock afterwards.

Winning that competition changed my life, I would say,

and it changed my career.

I had to make some choices which way I wanted to go.

Ten years after Inger's win, Finnish baritone Tommi Hakala,

also not a winner of his round, took the main prize.

The next couple of months were like crazy, actually.

I don't think I have ever given that much interviews in my life.

This news that I won that competition was brought in everywhere here

and then came invitations to auditions. The next two,

three years were quite fast, full-booked.

Both singers returned home to take lead roles

at their national opera houses.

There are two different ways of running operas -

buying all the soloists for that production

and then the other soloists for the next and so on.

Or then there are these houses where they have a fixed ensemble,

so that means you have every kind of voices in the house regularly, monthly paid.

This is my fifth season

here in the ensemble of the Finnish National Opera.

One of the reasons were that I could extend my repertoire a little bit,

getting the shorter, but heavy Wagner roles and more heavy Verdi stuff.

It's been very good experience.

After her win in Cardiff, Inger Dam-Jensen returned to Copenhagen

to develop her career with the Royal Danish Opera.

I was really lucky to get all the roles which were perfect for me

to begin my career.

I have a contract with the Danish National Opera.

It's 15 performances,

which means about two or three productions a year.

In her time in Denmark, Inger has taken on a long list

of operatic roles and has also become a sought-after

performer on concert stages around the world.

I love concerts and I do that as much as I can.

It's shorter periods and I can be with my children here,

so that's a good combination for me.

Both Inger and Tommi continue to perform

both in their home countries and internationally.

The success of Nordic singers in Cardiff continued in 1995

when Sweden's Katarina Karneus won over the jury

and the St David's Hall audience.

The prize went further afield in '97.

With China becoming a hothouse for operatic talent,

it was no surprise when Guang Yang became their first Cardiff Singer winner.

1999 saw the title back in European hands, the prize going to

German soprano Anja Harteros -

now one of the world's biggest stars.

2001 was another year for firsts.

Romania's Marius Brenciu became the first winner

of both the main prize and the song prize

and also the first tenor to lift the trophy.

The 20th anniversary of the competition, in 2003,

was marked by some major changes.

The Lieder Prize was renamed the Song Prize,

and established as an event in its own right.

Then there was a new audience prize, offering those at home

and in the hall a chance to pick their favourite from the week.

Chilean soprano Angela Marambio took home the inaugural award.

And long-serving jury member Dame Joan Sutherland was honoured

with a new title, that of the competition's first patron.

A role she would continue in until her death in 2010.

2005 saw Nicole Cabell wow the jury to become

only the second American to claim the Cardiff Singer title.

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World really launched my career.

Right afterwards, it was just a tidal wave of attention and media,

and roles being offered, both appropriate and inappropriate!

The pressures that came after the competition

were probably the most difficult psychologically.

It was not only a choice between what roles do I sing,

but how often do I sing?

Joan Sutherland gave me the advice, "Don't do too much, too soon."

But every once in awhile I did just a little bit too much.

It got to me, I needed more time for vacation, for rest.

And ultimately, for preparation.

And this is what kills us young singers, right?

We need time to really put a role in our voice.

Nicole has graced the stages of many of the world's leading opera houses,

including her debut in 2008 at New York's Metropolitan Opera,

the holy grail for all American opera singers.

Singing at the Metropolitan Opera, a huge check off of my bucket list!

You know, I can always tell my grandchildren,

if I retire tomorrow, that I've sung at the Met.

More than once! SHE LAUGHS

It's very important for the Met to have a good relationship

with the Cardiff competition.

We want new talent, we want to discover new talent,

we want other people to discover new talent

and then seize upon their discovery.

There are very few stars who have the superstar quality

that really makes audiences want to buy tickets

to go to an opera performance,

and we need singers who have that star power.

The next Cardiff Singer winner to show his star power

and eventually find his way onto the Met stage

was Chinese bass baritone Shenyang.

'As a stage animal, he was unready.

'You don't immediately see him walking on stage

'and singing the great roles.'

But he was very much to my mind a worthy young winner,

in that this bass should come up with such a mature sound.

Soon after his victory in Cardiff, Shenyang was invited to New York

to attend both the Juilliard School and the Met's young artist program.

He did have a lot of filling in to do

in terms of languages, repertoire work, dramatic work.

That was all quite new to him.

Certain vocal categories like coloratura sopranos,

lyric mezzos, they can really get ready quite early.

In Shenyang's case, since he's a bass, he was in his early 20s,

it's almost impossible to really cast a bass in those years.

So the fact that we could put him on stage in major roles here,

that was a terrific training ground for him,

where he could really grow, and develop safely

and not have the pressure of having to get out

and make a living in those years.

In fact, by the time that training was over,

only about his second year out of Cardiff,

he was singing Masetto on the Met stage.

If Shenyang's victory in 2007 was all about raw talent

and potential, 2009's winning performance showed that

Ekaterina Scherbachenko was fully formed and ready to go.

At 32, she'd already performed several major roles

in her native Russia.

Her win in Cardiff helped launch her onto the international stage,

with performances at the Met, London's Royal Opera House

and La Scala, Milan.

In 2011, the competition's new patron, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa,

was on the jury to witness 24-year-old Moldovan soprano

Valentina Nafornita's winning performance.

'Professionally, I was really at the beginning.'

It's quite a big deal to sing in front of these personalities.

They are huge names. It was challenging, of course, for me.

I really gave everything that I had at that moment.

Valentina won both the audience prize and the main prize,

becoming the youngest winner in the competition's history.

My father and my mother, they never felt that joy that they felt then.

I mean, my sister was calling me, and she was asking me,

"What, you are the Singer of the World now? You are?

"Oh, God, I cannot believe it!"

I mean, for them, of course, this was the most excited moment.

Valentina would start her career

at one of the world's most important opera houses -

the Vienna State Opera.

It's an amazing opera house, and for me, like a beginner,

it's a fantastic opportunity to be here and perform on the stage.

We have really the who's-who of the big names of the opera world.

We perform 50 different operas every year,

and it gives many opportunities

for the young singers to show what they're able to do.

When somebody like Valentina wins a very important competition,

everyone wants her to sing main roles.

And of course, she was too young.

And here, we can spend time just to help them to grow up.

'This year, I sang Marzelline from Fidelio.

'I sang Musetta from La Boheme, beautiful.'

Also I had a very great opportunity to sing at the Vienna Ball.

It's live transmitted to four million people,

watching that programme, in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

For her it was a great opportunity to be more well known.

I want to learn, many, many parts that are really for my voice,

for my age now, and to really sing it and enjoy it now, you know?

I really want to go with this kind of repertoire and after, we will see.

So I am very happy, very happy.

The search for a singer to follow in Valentina's footsteps

as the next BBC Cardiff Singer of the World started last year.

More than 420 entrants submitted DVDs.

As a result, 52 singers were shortlisted.

They were auditioned at nine locations around the world.

These are singers who are already well on their way

to being good, professional singers.

They're people who are already working,

they've come out of young artist programmes.

They're really on the cusp.

We've had a lot of spine-tingling moments.

There are ones as soon as they open their mouth,

you know there's something very special there.

And it is quite thrilling.

What they're doing is trying to advance their careers enormously

by getting that fantastic global moment.

Cardiff is the glittering prize.

It's the one that gives you that incredible push forward.

A competition like Cardiff, that is widely recognised,

it's played a very valuable role in the operatic landscape.

Cardiff Singer is like being handed

the best possible catalogue of available talent.

Over 30 years, Cardiff has shown that there is no limit

to the range of vocal talent.

That wonderful singers come from each corner of the globe.

This year, we've got somebody from Egypt for the first time.

People from the Far East, the Koreans, the Chinese.

It's really a very big canvas.

This competition has gone on really from strength to strength,

and it will always be a magnet for people

who are looking for the future generation of star singers.

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