A Canadian and a counter-tenor among 5 Met winners
mainOut of nine finalists, five won prizes of $15,000 at the Met’s National Council Auditions on Sunday, a career springboard for young talent.
The winners are: soprano Yelena Dyachek, 24; mezzo Emily D’Angelo, 21, countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński, 25; and baritones Sol Jin, 30, and Sean Michael Plumb, 24.
Emily is a voice student at the University of Toronto.
Yelena recently won a coveted place in the Houston Grand Opera studio.
UPDATE: Sean, we hear, joins the Bavarian State Opera ensemble next season.
And I believe Sean Michael Plumb joins the ensemble of the Bavarian State Opera next season…
weh-hey!!
I was at this “competition.” All the singers were very very good, as you would expect after they have passed through the many stages to reach this final public performance. While the house may have been half empty for Donizetti the other day (as reported on SD) it was jammed yesterday afternoon for this and it always is, every year.
Yelena Dyachek gave a Tatiana Letter Scene that was just magnificent and would’ve been well-received if she’d been performing it at the Met “for real.” I was also very impressed with Orlinski, a Polish counter tenor who sounded ethereal in the manner of Alfred Deller and whose diction was flawless.
The biggest cheers of the afternoon were for both performances by Sol Jin from South Korea. There were several baritones and all were very fine, but he has a large voice with a bloom to it that had me swept up in the sheer glorious sound. I don’t know voices like singers know voices, but I sure know talent when I see and hear it.
Emily sang “Why Must Winter Come So Soon” from Vanessa, an opera they will never now do at the Met but should. Hey – maybe they can fill half the house like Donizetti apparently does………………..
And Emily has already won a coveted spot in the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio, a program just as vaunted as Houston’s!