Anglo singers win Belvedere

Anglo singers win Belvedere

News

norman lebrecht

June 28, 2021

The 39th International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition has been won by Joshua Lovell, a tenor from Canada.

The finals took place in Erfurt, Germany, without international media covera.

Second prize was shared between Elena Villalón (US) and Verity Wingate (UK).

Comments

  • V.Lind says:

    I don’t know that singers from either Canada, where I live, or the US, would appreciate being called “Anglos.”

  • Peter San Diego says:

    Eerfurt? Don’t you mean Earfurt? ;-))

  • Cornelia Beilke says:

    Anglos? Once again, Norman is out of touch with today’s world. He takes great care to label and divide people into whatever categories he can find. Music is a global form of expression and we do not need to make distinctions based on anything other than accomplishment. Or do we?

    • V.Lind says:

      I was thinking that. A lot of stories seem to lead on the sex, race or nationality of the subjects. I personally don’t give a fig how many conductors are women, or whether they are black, white, etc., let alone how many of a particular nationality of ethnic group form the finalists of some competition or other. But perhaps other people do. Not sure why, though I do understand campaigning to make opportunities available to all, so maybe it is just a way of measuring progress.

  • Gary Freer says:

    I believe the French lump together UK USA and the Commonwealth countries as ‘Les Anglo Saxons’. Perhaps that is what Norman had in mind.

    • V.Lind says:

      Perhaps. But in light of some recent blogposts, it read as if to show that not only “Pacific” people qualified, or “Nordics” were dominating Bayreuth. Why do we have to know these lists anyway by this sort of separation? If all the winners were English, or Canadian, or American, that might be noteworthy in an Olympic Games sort of way. but I don ‘t know many Canadians or Americans who would like this distinction.

      Are we taking our stylings now from what the French do? I wish we would when it comes to food and dress (and, for my money, much music), but rarely when it comes to manners, which a way of referring to people is. I suggest that if you are going to lump people together in some nationalistic way, a modicum of accuracy is employed.

      Do you really think Elena Villalón considers herself “Anglo”?

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