Mastersingers at 25: tenor James Schouten and soprano Lorna McLean receive 2024 Carole Rees Awards

United KingdomUnited Kingdom Mastersingers 25th Anniversary – 2024 Carole Rees Awards: St John’s Waterloo, London, 5.10.2024. (JPr)

In the very late 1990s as (the then) chair of the UK’s Wagner Society I was there at the start of the Mastersingers story. The driving force has aways been the now-ageless baritone, Malcolm Rivers, famous from English National Opera’s halcyon days – as well as opera stages throughout the world. In the glossy souvenir programme to accompany the celebrations in a well-attended St John’s Waterloo, legendary soprano Dame Anne Evans writes of Malcolm: ‘His enthusiasm for helping young singers to master the works of Richard Wagner is unique in this country. The number of singers he has put on the road to international careers is countless.’

Malcolm himself writes: ‘Mastersingers discovers voices most likely to develop along the lines Wagner describes by audition and networking. We coach, promote and provide performance experience with orchestra and piano. In the past 25 years we have heard our singers regularly at the Royal Opera House, Bayreuth, ENO and the Met. To underpin this we have provided public coaching sessions in London, Aldeburgh and other centres with great musicians as Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir John [Tomlinson], Dame Anne, Sir Donald McIntyre and director Keith Warner. Most recently the culmination of this work has been the outstanding performances in the Longborough Ring by many of our alumni under the baton of Anthony Negus, which was widely applauded by audiences and critics alike.’ (Read a recent review here.)

Although they have achieved much, sometimes of course, the most ambitious plans have often had to be curtailed because the finance was not available; so, if any of what you read here appeals to you and you feel you can help or donate in any way then do contact Mastersingers (more details here).

Central to these 25th anniversary celebrations was the 11th year of the Carole Rees Awards competition. We learnt in the programme how ‘The first presentations … were made in her memory in 2014. Carole Rees was a passionate educator who in her latter years became particularly interested in the development of musicians whose aspirations included that of adding the work of Richard Wagner to their repertoire. She thus became known among those engaging in career development programmes organised by Mastersingers.’ The scheme is generously supported by Roger Lee, Carole’s widower, though sadly he was unable to be present at St John’s and was believed to be following – like me – the Final of the 2024 Carole Rees Awards on Zoom.

The singers have to be 38 and under by the date of the final with two first prizes (equivalent to six specialised coaching sessions) – one female, one male – to be awarded; with other finalists possibly receiving other support for coaching as deemed appropriate. There is also an Audience Prize generously donated by Wendy Adler in memory of her late husband – and fervent Wagner devotee – Eric. The adjudicating panel in 2024 were Sir John Tomlinson (chair), James Black, Alwyn Mellor and Dame Felicity Palmer.

The 2024 Finalists were sopranos Iúnó Connolly, Lorna McLean, Cressida Sharp; mezzo-soprano Zofia Hanna; tenor James Schouten; baritone Alistair Sutherland; and bass-baritones Jakob Mahase, Leo Selleck. All were accompanied by the musical director of Mastersingers, Kelvin Lim. The event’s urbane host, the bass-baritone Paul Carey-Jones, explained finalists are required to sing two pieces by Wagner – and not necessarily from his operas (though all eight those to do so on this occasion) – lasting no longer than 12 minutes in duration.

The sopranos notably favoured ‘Elsa’s Dream’ (Lohengrin) and ‘Elisabeth’s Prayer’ (Tannhäuser), Waltraute’s ‘Höre mit Sinn, was ich dir sage!’ (Götterdämmerung) is a frequent mezzo-soprano choice; though there was more variety from the male singers with Daland, Dutchman (Der fliegende Holländer), Donner, Loge, Wotan (Das Rheingold), Hans Sachs (Die Meistersinger), and Siegmund (Die Walkϋre).

It would be unfair to critique individual voices, and the overall standard was pleasantly high. One of my main concerns was – considering the emphasis put on ‘young emerging talent’ – that perhaps the upper age limit is too high; with the technique of all the singers probably well established as they approach their late 30s, despite any obvious new potential for Wagner. Also, opportunities for any of them to forge a substantial career in Wagner is now more unlikely than it ever was, and so emphasis might be more on that ‘emerging talent’ and they could sing one piece by Wagner and something else of their own choosing. Also, Kelvin Lim strove valiantly to support all the singers though I wonder whether if they could bring their own pianist – had they wanted to – it might have improved some of the performances.

Occasionally it was obvious that the singers knew too little about the characters they were portraying or the words they were singing or, more frankly, had ever seen or heard Wagner’s operas. This was reflected in the words of Sir John Tomlinson in announcing the result of the jury’s deliberations when he said; ‘For us there was one performance which stood out above all the rest and this was James [Schouten] as Loge … James combined wonderful delivery of the text, great German, clarity of text, thought behind the text … character excellent. The thing about Wagnerian singing is combining everything isn’t it? Character, voice, text, acting and drama; and James came by far the nearest to that ideal.’ James also – not surprisingly – received the Audience Prize.

Apparently, the others were deemed not of the same all-round standard, so the second award went to the singer believed to have ‘a real Wagnerian voice and – in the long term – the most potential’ and that was Lorna McLean. For me both winners were very worthy; though I much preferred James’s Siegmund to his Loge and whilst Lorna indeed showed ‘potential’ – given the opportunity – it is more likely to be as Sieglinde and Brünnhilde than Elisabeth and Elsa.

It was now time for a gala concert with some special guests and here’s to Mastersingers’ next 25!

Jim Pritchard

Featured Image: James Schouten receiving his Carole Rees Award from Sir John Tomlinson and Dame Anne Evans.

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