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When Laureano Quant‘s victory was announced last night, Saturday, May 31, at around 10:15 p.m., a great cheer echoed through Bourgie Hall, packed for this grand finale of Art Song. The Colombian baritone’s fans came out in force to support him, proudly displaying their country’s flag, just as they would during a World Cup victory for the national team.
Yet, Quant wasn’t the favourite to win. He faced two candidates, Russian soprano Julia Muzychenko-Greenhalgh and UK baritone Theodore Platt, who already seemed to possess all the attributes of experienced singers, confidence in their talents, and a great artistic sense.
The Colombian won because he displayed a combination of qualities that many of his competitors lacked: a sensitive and applied interpretation, careful and elegant diction, a strong sense of singing instinct, and… an incomparable timbre in the mezza voce passages. In Gerald Finzi’s first two songs, the audience admired the clarity of his English, the shimmering metal of his voice, and his skill in nuance.
It often happens that a candidate owes their victory—or defeat—to a single aria or a single passage. In Quant’s case, it was the third song on the program, Silent Noon by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The pianissimo he managed to craft in the finale was a magical moment that Theodore Platt, one of the favorites, could do nothing to counter.
That said, Quant suffered from a repertoire choice that was sometimes not entirely suited to his natural register. Schubert’s Der Doppelgänger struck us as particularly deep for this baritone’s voice, which clearly thrives more in the upper register (his interpretation of Escamillo’s aria, in the first round of Aria, had already convinced us of this).
In Poulenc’s song cycle, we can’t say he had any problems with pitch, but he came dangerously close. In any case, he held his own, and that’s also why his victory is richly deserved.
What we can say, however, is that Poulenc gave the candidates a hard time! Platt sang no fewer than seven of the composer’s songs, in perfect French, but the technical difficulty of each one was clearly felt. He had the courage to perform them together in a lively rhythm and with heart, but was not rewarded for his efforts. The British baritone could still win an award in the Aria category, and why not the highest distinction? His technical ease, artistry, and diction in all languages rank him among the best of this Voice edition. His performance in the Song final was remarkable, once again, both in the high notes and the (very) low notes.
For French soprano Fanny Soyer, the last to perform, Poulenc proved fatal. After several breathtaking interpretations of generosity and lyricism, but also in the humorous register with Rossini’s La chanson du bébé, she did not phonate on a high note of one of Poulenc’s Deux poèmes de Louis Aragon, a momentary hitch that unfortunately jeopardized any chance of victory.
Muzychenko-Greenhalgh was the first candidate of the evening. Her smile demonstrated a true taste and enjoyment for the repertoire she sang. In Debussy’s “Apparition,” she perfectly showcased the marriage between words and music, a sign of great musicality, but also of great respect for the musicality of language. Her voice is fluid, refined, elegant, and impressively controlled in the smallest nuances, which should logically lead her to the final of the Aria section. However, some melodic contours escaped her attention, in Debussy, but also in a Franz Grothe song with numerous coloraturas. We were particularly touched by her interpretation of Schubert’s Du bist die Ruh, including a perfectly executed absence of vibrato, and her enveloping sweetness in a Rachmaninoff romance. All that remains for the soprano is to give better definition to the various vowels in the upper register to perfect her art and rise to the top of the podium.
Finally, Australian soprano Fleuranne Brockway delivered her best performance to date. Her voice deserves to be even more focused to gain colour and brilliance. We can’t wait to hear her again in the Aria semifinals! Among her repertoire, we salute her very expressive interpretation of Robert Schumann’s “Die Kartenlegerin,” a highlight of her performance in the Song finals.
At the end of the evening, two special awards were also presented: to Laureano Quant for Best Performance of a Schubert Song (“Der Doppelgänger”) and to Ihor Mostovoi for Best Performance of a Canadian Song (“Mon souverain,” from La Reine-garçon by Julien Bilodeau). Join us Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. for the Aria’s first semi-final.
The CMIM Voice 2025 continues until June 6, 2025.
https://concoursmontreal.ca/en/voice-2025/
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