Three lyric sopranos, a dramatic mezzo and a tenor made up the finalists for this year’s Voice of Black Opera competition, organised by the Black British Classical Foundation, and open to singers from the Commonwealth. Britain, Canada, South Africa and Jamaica were represented in the final, in which each of the contestants sang a group of arias including a duet with one of three professional singers, with the Welsh National Opera Orchestra, conducted by Matthew Kofi Waldren, as well as a contemporary song with piano accompaniment by a black or south Asian composer.
The programme booklet for the evening failed however to explain any of the competition’s conditions – the age limits for entrants, or what had to be included in their choice of repertoire – though it was at pains to list who was responsible for their hair and makeup. Nor did it give the ages of the finalists, which surely matters when young singers are being assessed, especially when as here their range of experience seemed to vary quite widely, from some who had only just graduated from music school, to those who had already had taken solo roles with companies around Europe.
