Twenty-three-year-old bass-baritone Shen Yang from China was crowned BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2007 last night after a nail-biting final.
The youngest competitor, Yang performed Banquo's aria from Verdi's Macbeth, Mozart's 'Mentre ti lascio, o figlia' (K. 513) and Aleko's cavatina from Rachmaninov's Aleko.
The Rachmaninov came in for particular praise from the BBC's television commentators, reducing vocal coach Mary King to tears and causing Antonio Pappano, Music Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, to describe his voice as 'one in a million'.
Yang was one of three particularly strong performers in the final. Many felt that English soprano Elizabeth Watts gave a more secure all-round performance, capping her programme with a dazzling rendition of the aria 'Il me revient fidèle' from Berlioz's Béatrice et Bénédict.
However, it will surely have been something of a consolation to Watts to have won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Rosenblatt Recital Prize on Friday evening for her accomplished performance of songs by Debussy, Strauss, Maconchy and Wolf.
The Audience Prize went to the South African baritone Jacques Imbrailo. A member of the Royal Opera's Young Artists scheme (with whom he performed the title role in Britten's Owen Wingrave to great acclaim), Imbrailo's professionalism, vivid acting and emotional commitment in Round 5 caused many to wonder why he did not make it through to the final. With performances of arias from Handel's Rinaldo, Mozart's Don Giovanni and Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades, he impressed the viewers at home and the audience in St David's Hall in Cardiff, where the competition is held, winning the prize on the strength of their votes alone. MusicalCriticism.com interviewed him in advance of his Cardiff appearance here.
Joining Yang and Watts in the final were Australian soprano Miranda Keys, Hungarian baritone Levente Molnár, and Chilean mezzo Maria Isabel Vera. The latter's performance of arias by Verdi and Mascagni was perhaps the most visceral and convincing of the night. However, the television commentators agreed that her decision to perform a fourth aria - 'O don fatale' from Verdi's Don Carlo - when she only needed to do three, caused her to tire, revealing strain at the top of her voice. Nevertheless, Antonio Pappano said: 'She has a voice in a hundred million.I think it's important for the audience at home to understand how rare this voice is - we cast these roles all the time and she is something special'.
Although they also came in for praise, it was suggested that some of the repertoire choices of both Keys and particularly Molnár were too demanding or not suited to their vocal strengths.
But Shen Yang, Elizabeth Watts and Jacques Imbrailo leave Cardiff in the knowledge that they have joined the elite of the opera world, following in the paths of previous prize winners Bryn Terfel, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Lisa Gasteen, Christopher Maltman and Karita Mattila. International careers undoubtedly beckon.