´óÏó´«Ã½

Monday brought another packed day of music making.

Competitors from Concert Two

Five more singers took part in Recital Three of the Song Prize at the New Theatre in the afternoon, with a further five performing at St David's Hall in concert two in the evening.

Broadcasting got well under way, with the first ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four programme from concert one being shown in the evening. You can catch up with anything you've missed - click on the Programmes tab at the top of the website to find out what is currently available and what's coming up.

Concert two

Some of the audience may have thought that Dawid Kimberg from South Africa hadn't turned up when conductor Lawrence Foster came onstage alone. But Dawid was starting with Largo al factotum, in which Figaro starts singing offstage. He bounded on in time to introduce himself as Figaro, the barber of Seville.

This aria is the most popular in this competition this year. If everyone who has chosen to sing it gets to the final, there are a total of eight chances to hear it across the week!

Next on was tenor Ji-Min Park from the Republic of Korea. He represented the full range of tenor heroes from Gounod's Romeo to Prince Sou-Chong in Lehár's Das Land des Lächelns.

English mezzo-soprano Anna Stephany was also playing the hero for much of her programme, as two of her three items were 'trouser' roles. She gave us the second Romeo of the evening, in an aria from Bellini's I Capuleti e I Montecchi, and Dopo Notte, sung by the title role in Handel's Ariodante. Interestingly, Anna was wearing a very feminine green dress - but in her Song Prize recital, she may have been the first female Cardiff Singer competitor to wear trousers on stage.

After the interval, Mexican baritone Octavio Moreno sang three arias in three languages - Russian, Italian and French. The latter was Valentin's aria from Gounod's Faust - Gounod is proving to be one of the favourite composers of this competition. There are always many pieces by Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, Mozart and Donizetti throughout the week, but Gounod is normally a little less in evidence. You might call him the 'composer du jour'.

The last competitor to sing was soprano Ekaterina Shcherbachenko from Russia. Her programme included Tatyana's letter song from Eugene Onegin, in which Tatyana's indecision as she writes her love letter is reflected in the length of the aria. But there was still time for her to start her programme with Mozart's Come scoglio from Così fan tutte.

The winner of concert two was Ekaterina Shcherbachenko from Russia.

Recital three

Singers from Portugal, Andorra, Australia, Wales and the Czech Republic were truly singers of the world in recital three of the Song Prize. They sang music from three continents (Europe, America and Australia) and six languages (French, German, Catalan, Spanish, English and Russian).

Master class news

There has been a slight change to the schedule for the master classes, to be held in the New Theatre on Saturday. The session times are the same, but Giacomo Aragall and Kurt Moll have changed places. Here is the updated schedule:

11am - Kurt Moll and Dame Gwyneth Jones
3pm - Giacomo Aragall and Richard Bonynge