… BUT BELIEVE IT OR NOT MY SATURDAY NIGHT INCLUDED SOME STEMS TOO ACTUALLY!?!?!

Just kidding about the all-caps. Let's get down to it: I didn't feel well enough on Saturday night to make it down to McCaw Hall for the Wagner Competition, despite having been so anxious to hear the singers. Instead I opted to lend my witch doctoring services to a few close friends who were going to be taking their first psycho-spiritual journey into what I call the Hallways of Always. It's a good thing I was there to help keep things under control; I don't think they were quite prepared for what transpired. There was death and birth and brocade ceilings and towers of kaleidescopic language. You, reader, likely have no idea what I'm talking about—unless you're in the club and see through exactly to what my hints (which I find totally transparent and obvious) imply.

Nevertheless I knew who was going to win the competition just by looking at the photos of the singers slated to perform. Try it: go to the artist photos page, scrutinize the facial features and necks and under-the-jaw areas, and try to guess who would look best on an Aimé Dupont cabinet card circa 1895.

If you guessed Miriam Murphy, you are correct. She was my pick, but it wasn't just about who gives good turn-of-the-20th-century face. Murphy's physical traits from the neck up are clear signifiers of the proper physiological conditions that help produce (and are, in turn, produced by) excellent singing. Of course, I didn't attend, so I have no idea what Murphy sounds like. A baritone, James Rutherford, won the other $15,000 prize and the vote of the audience and the orchestra. But, with all due respect, the operatic world is not at a loss for decent baritones; there's basically only one way to sing as a baritone or tenor and still be able to sing the actual pitches, and that method of approaching, say, the middle and top notes cannot be futzed with, lest the voice break down altogether. There are, however, only two respectable Wagnerian sopranos that I can think of—Christine Brewer and Jennifer Wilson (and they could both stand to temper their tendencies to overdarken and use put-on "resonance"—but they, less so than most sopranos that sing even the lighter repertoire). Perhaps Murphy will be a bright light to a fach sorely lacking in singers that can do it justice.

We'll all get our chance to hear the singers and agree or disagree with the judges' decisions on August 26th at 7:00 PM Pacific, when Seattle's classical music station, KING FM, broadcasts the competition. You can tune in online with Windows Media or RealPlayer.