For round two of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, our colleagues from the Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera (WNO) were on duty, and saw Hungarian soprano Maria Celeng lift the round trophy.
In other more minor successes, Twitter tells me that the trumpets and lower brass of WNO enjoyed the pencils and biscuits they found in our studio during rehearsals!
For Concert Three we were accompanying soloists from Lithuania, Portugal, Ukraine, Belarus, and Wales' own Gary Griffiths. From the start of rehearsal it was clear that this was a very strong round, with some fabulous repertoire, and an incredible high level of performance.
Returning to St David's Hall on Wednesday night, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales was now in full Cardiff Singer mode, with members having very definitely picked their favourites, and backstage discussion mostly focussed on the importance of programme for this competition.
I guess there are two ways of looking at it; you choose a programme full of variety that will show off the range and scope of your voice and ability, a real competition winning programme, or you take the competition as a shop window, and show the bookers, scouts, and agents who are watching with great interest what roles you want.
That is just speculation on my part of course. However, I came away from the round thinking that certain programmes were amazing and perfect for competition, but from their programme choice, already imagining how great it would be to see certain competitors in specific roles.
In this round in particular, I was struck by the incredible number of languages the competitors must be competent in (Welsh baritone Gary Griffiths alone sang in four - Italian, Russian, German and French). OK, so they don't need to be fluent, or able to hold a full blown conversation, but they must be convincing in whatever language their chosen repertoire is in.
They must understand what they are singing in order to delve the emotional depths of the work, and also have more than sufficient grasp of all the little quirks of a language in order that they be able to communicate the words and music to the audience. Clear diction is paramount, or else it just sounds like a jumble of meaningless sounds.
As this is an opera prize however, the quality of voice must also be combined with an ability to embody the role being performed convincingly. In this round, for me, Olena Tokar and Susana Gaspar were most successful. Olena sang one of my favourite arias, Glück, das mir verblieb, from Korngold's Die Tote Stadt and her voice, combined with her graceful, subtle gesture had me nearly weeping on stage.
Olena Tokar was crowned the victor of Concert Three, but other highlights for me were Susana Gaspar's entire programme, and Yuri Gorodetski's Una Furtiva Lagrima (Donizetti). I think he'd be fabulous in a romantic role, like Romeo.
Catch up with all of the rounds from Cardiff Singer of the World on BBC iPlayer until Sunday 30 June.
