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The Bilbao International Singing Competition 2008: Orquesta Sinfonica de Bilbao. Conductor: Miguel Patron Marchand. Teatro Arriaga de Bilbao.22.11.2008 (JMI)


Bilbao celebrated the twelfth edition of its Singing Contest begun in 1986 this year.  Throughout its history the competition has served as a springboard for singers who have international prestige now, among them Isabel Rey, Alexandrina Pendatchanska, Isabelle Kabatu, Francisco Casanova, Egils Silins, Iride Martinez, Mihoko Fujimura and Micaela Carosi.

The current edition  did not  produce a level equal to its  vintage years  and was notable for the massive presence of Korean singers  - almost half of the entrants registered. The final round of the contest had 11 singers, six of them from Korea. The quality of the finalists,  in general, left much to be desired and I believe it would have been better to have limited the numbers of the finalists, as a means of preserving the event’s  reputation. Much the same could be said of the final prize - winners. I did not find any female singer worth a first prize, nor even  a second one and as far as the men went, with the  exception of the eventual winner, there was no-one  remotely good enough for the  final of an International Contest.

In the female section the first prize went to  the light Russian soprano Ekaterina Bakanova, who sang “Caro nome”.  She has a pleasant  voice  which is  well projected although with a not too clean coloratura. I don’t know what happened in the previous rounds, but I could not consider her worth a first prize : a second or third prize would have been more than enough.

The men's first prize went for the young Korean (22 years) bass  Jong Min Park, who sang “Come dal ciel precipita” from Macbeth very well. This is an important  voice, homogenous through the tessitura and used with great expressiveness.

Second  prizes were awarded to Israeli mezzo soprano Ana Pesches and the Korean baritone Guk Hoe Song. She is rather short of volume in the middle and bottom ranges and rather better higher up, while her diction could be better whatever she sings. She sang “Acerba voluttá” from Adriana Lecouvreur and Guk Hoe Song performed  “Eri Tu” from Ballo . He  is not a Verdi baritone by a long chalk, singing everything forte, which  was greatly appreciated by the audience. Neither  should really have reached the finals.

The Greek soprano Eleni Calenos received no prize, although she was one of the very few worthy to be in this final. She sang “Mi chiamano Mimi” with a pleasant voice and actually gave some meaning to the words. Some of the finalists sang arias in some kind of so called  French language, but it was very hard to be sure about that.  Among the 11 finalists there was only one tenor, Korean of course, and frankly we would have enjoyed the event more without any tenor entrants at all.

The audience prize went also to Gok Hoe Song. This time there were no local singers, who have been the winners of this prize in the past. Miguel Patron Marchand conducted the Orquestra Sinfónica de Bilbao very efficiently. Vintage 2008 was a rather poor wine, all told.

José M Irurzun


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