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BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2009 : The Search is on for the 2009 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 22.12. 2008 (MS)


Cardiff Singer of the World – Sunday June 7 to Sunday June 14, 2009

The search is nearly over. Hundreds of singers from across the planet have auditioned. Now the process of selecting the finest aspiring opera singers to compete in BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2009 begins. The Competition’s musical adviser Julian Smith has been hitting the road, the train, the bus, the aeroplane and the taxi to bring the brightest singing talent to St David’s Hall in Cardiff to sing for the live, online, radio and television audiences.

The Welsh contestant has already been chosen. Natalya Romaniw won the title Welsh Singers Competition at St David’s Hall last summer securing her place to represent Wales in 2009 at the competition which is organised by BBC Wales.

That left 24. So Julian has been grappling with international travel far and wide, holding auditions across the continents. By the time Julian reached the Romanian capital Bucharest the auditions in that city took the number of countries where singers have auditioned to a staggering 53 - and he still had most of Europe to hear!

But no world talent trawl by Julian would be the same without the occasional mishap. This time it was arriving in Bucharest on a Romanian national day, when taxis were in as short supply as house buyers and the fastest way to travel the 16 kilometre journey into the city was on the Number 358 bus.

“Having taken cash out of a machine at the airport I only had large notes and the driver had no change so he kindly allowed me to travel free. I owe the Romanian bus company!” Julian laughed from his hotel room at the Athena Palace Hotel in Bucharest.

“This is the hotel I stayed in back in 1992 in the first year I was auditioning but it is a new hotel now. The original back then was where the Revolution took place and there were bullet holes in the lift doors.”

Natalya, from Swansea, and the other 24 selected singers will take part in one of the concerts from Sunday 7 June to Thursday 11 June 2009 to choose the five who will take part in the grand final.

That grand final will be at St David's Hall on Sunday 14 June. The singers will be accompanied by the orchestras of Welsh National Opera and BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

The Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize, open to all 25 competitors, opens at the New Theatre, Cardiff, on the evening of Saturday 6 June and is followed by three afternoon concerts on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. That competition also has its own grand final which takes place at St David's Hall, Cardiff on Friday 12 June.

Two of the latest winners, 2007 Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize winner Elizabeth Watts from England and Audience Prize winner South African Jacques Imbrailo returned to Wales in December for Messiah at St David’s Hall and start rehearsals with Welsh National Opera to sing Susannah and Count Almaviva in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. Jacques will be singing in Cardiff and on tour between February 7 to March 27 and Elizabeth joins the cast to tour the new production from March 17 to April 17. 

Mike Smith

For more information contact:

Mike Smith Tel. 07795 325161  Email: mike@mediasmith.co.uk

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