Karoline Podolak / Critiques

This was a big year for sopranos at the competition. Karoline Podolak enchanted in ‘Je suis Titania’ from Ambroise Thomas’s Mignon. The aria was a fireworks display of coloratura, trills and bell-like high notes. Amber R. Monroe’s gleaming lyric spinto soprano is on a par with her fashion sense. She poured out emotion in ‘Addio mio dolce amor’ from Puccini’s Edgar, which she topped off with a stunning high B-flat. Five tenors sang in the finals, but only Ricardo Garcia garnered a London Award. He gave a dramatically engrossing and vocally stellar performance of Lensky’s aria from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. The intensity of his singing was matched by the beauty of a burnished tenor that sobbed with sorrow as he sang of his love for Olga.

Her tone was gleaming, with excellent agility for the treacherous runs, showing fine musicality, attractive stage presence, not to mention that intangible something called star power