South African wins BBC Cardiff song prize
NewsThe South African soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, 27, has triumphed in the piano accompanied song prize of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021.
She is a former member of Covent Garden’s Jette Parker Young Artists Programme.
Wigmore Hall’s John Gilhooly chaired the judges.
There was no audience in the hall to see her win.
Norman, much as I value your blog, can you please stop referring to the Song Prize as the ‘sidebar’ prize?
It’s rather disrespectful to the prize in particular and the genre of art song in general. There is a song prize and an opera aria / orchestrated song prize, to be accurate about things. Just think of all those that have won the Song Prize and have gone on to have major careers, rather than being consigned to the ranks of bit-part and also rans…
This was an excellent contest, with a final full of fine performers. Looking forward to Wigmore Hall recitals from each of them and much more besides.
Point taken.
You shouldn’t be apologizing.
1. The other prize is referred to as the Main Prize. The implication is obvious.
2. The Song Prize programmes are very brief and hardly coherent (see https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5xQWxCrn2lGrPLVTdl2cTyN/song-prize-final-thursday-17-june).
3. The BBC has nothing to be proud of here. When was a song recital last seen on British television?
I tweeted Kim Gihoon would win his opera round and Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha who was in the same round would win through to the final as the wild card. The other 3 finalists are excellent but a clear class below these two. If they show what they produced on Tuesday there’s the clearest case for a joint first prize. Gihoon had 2 of the judges in tears and Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha was simply astonishing.
I agree. Kim Gilhoon has an astonishingly beautiful, powerful instrument, which he uses to sing with astonishing musicality. As a singer, I could go into the details of how he manages the passaggio, that part of the voice though which you pass from open, to mixed to covered sound. It is an art in itself, and dictates the homogeneity or otherwise of the range. Suffice it to say that he is already a master in the art (Mr. Domingo might well take a listen and promptly retire as a so-called baritone). MCR is achingly moving as a singer, too, but – barring any final nerves or repertoire calamities – I can’t see anyone in line-up this taking the main prize from KG. He is up there with Dimitri in terms of his pure vocal impact in this competition, although nobody will ever have Dimitri’s animal magnetism with which to ice the cake! I am really excited to hear where his only 29 year old voice goes, especially in Verdi and Wagner. The Prometheus in the Song Final gave us a hint as to the latter. There is an incredible Wolfram waiting for us right now (I’d love to hear him sing “Blick ich umher..”) and an Amfortas a decade later, and Wotan after that… Can’t wait for the final!
What a load a rubbish. Did you not notice he can barely sing the lower notes of his baritone repertoire?
He has a high lying voice; how could he possibly sing bass-baritone roles?
I wasnt familiar with this artist, and found this video symbolizing (to me) the thrill associated with theaters re-opening. Just marvelous! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFAwVU5ffDw
Thanks for sharing. The whole video hits a spot, not just the singing – marvelous as it is, and her German diction is excellent. One could understand every word.
But the video goes beyond the singing. I had literally tears in my eyes. They catch the sensation of opening the “teure Halle” with great sense for dramatic development, from the dreary back stage area to the fully lighted auditorium.
My first post covid opera will come next month at the Rossini Festival in Bad Wildbad. The last one was on March 1, 2020. “Dich, teure Halle…”, indeed.
There must be quite a few people who feel the same way.
Wowza, what a voice! And very apropos. Thanks for sharing.
She is a current young artist at ROH, she leaves the programme in July.