I haven't been filing any recent reports from Cardiff Singer of the World because really I've got quite bored with it. I put this down to the fact that there have been far to many mezzo-sopranos competing , and winning.
This is not to say that the singers concerned haven't been good. To a fault they have had support, control, expression, colour and some of them have managed to perform, rather than just sing. They have also had voices that I just don't want to listen to.
It's not that there has never been a mezzo I didn't like. Brigitte Fassbaender for example was a joy to listen to. And there was a woman called Sally Burgess who used to sing at Opera North and she just stopped you in your tracks. So it's not a case of just not liking the mezzo voice. It's that I don't like these particular mezzo voices. They bore me.
Tonight's final has two mezzos, two sopranos and the Croatian who didn't know how to sing Handel. This latter choice strikes me as perverse in the extreme, but then I'm not a professional. I did say here that one day he would be great. I just don't think that the one day is the end of this week. I'm in two minds about whether to even watch it to be honest. I'll probably have a look on the website to see what they're singing, then make up my mind.
Let's hope the next two weeks of tennis at Wimbledon don't leave me feeling quite so let down.
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