This was definitely more like it. All five singers were of a high standard, almost all of them were better than all the singers in round 1 and the frocks were better as well. Once again there were perhaps some ill-advised repertory choices, but not such glaring ones as in Round 1.
The Hungarian soprano had me just from the rehearsal clip even before her televised performance. OK, if you want to be picky then her Fiordiligi was a bit lacking at the bottom but there was nothing wrong with the top. She managed to sing Handel as he should be sung, and finished up with a totally ravishing version of the Song to the Moon from Rusalka. I suppose the Rusalka is an expected choice given where she's from, but there's nothing wrong with that if you can perform it like she can. She sounded and looked absolutely wonderful.
She was followed by a baritone from Uzbekistan. The expert commentators didn't think much of his Rossini Figaro, although I was fine with it (but then I don't know much compared to them). His death of Posa was richly and elegantly sung and his other piece, from Korngold's Die Tote Stadt was breathtaking. He's one in a long line of Russian baritones who have an inner stillness and a depth of tone that's absolutely amazing. The 'innerness' quality is maybe what made his Figaro less successful, since that character is definitely a playful outgoing one, but all in all for me, he was giving the soprano a good run for her money.
There were two mezzos competing: I have to say the mezzo is my least favourite voice type as so often their sound is very muddy. Much was made of the fact that one of them was representing Egypt and this was the first singer from Egypt the competition had ever had. She wore a very nice red dress and chose three vamps to sing; Carmen, Delilah and a Polish person from an operetta I'd never heard of. The dress suited her repertoire, her performance less so. She can sing and she has a good basic voice, but she's not a vamp, nor was she able to convey the essence of vampishness. Nor indeed could she quite catch the Polish rhythms of her final piece.
The other mezzo was from Italy and went with the other side of the mezzo repertoire, trouser roles and lots of trills. She was certainly competent and pleasant enough to listen to, but one of those singers you forget as soon as they leave the stage. I would put some of that down to inexperience, were it not for the fact that she's the oldest competitor in the competition.
Last up was a South African baritone. He did a much more convincing Rossini Figaro, but sadly that seemed to leave him a bit out of breath and slightly off track because his next two pieces were full of cracked notes. I gather he's had some sort of throat infection recently that affected him. He sang the Yeletsky aria from Queen of Spades which was ridiculous because he's far too young for it, although I'm sure that one day he'll make a great success of the role. He finished with a zarzuela piece which I didn't know, but he did a good job with it. He also sang in three different languages, none of which were native to him and that alone is impressive. He was good but it wasn't his day, and I don't think he's quite ready yet for the huge career that I'm sure he will one day have.
I thought it was quite a close call between the Hungarian and the Uzbekistani. In the end I gave it to the soprano and the judges agreed. I wouldn't be at all surprised though to see two singers from this round in the final.
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