You would expect the country's premier singing competition to bring in top-notch judges and the Lexus Song Quest certainly does that.
In recent years it has been the likes of Grace Bumbry, Elizabeth Connell and Tom Krause who made the decisions that have set singers like Jonathan Lemalu, Anna Leese
and Madeleine Pierard on successful careers overseas.
This year the fate of the six Lexus semifinalists is in the hands of the distinguished German tenor Siegfried Jerusalem who, after working intensively with the singers over the next few days, will cast his vote at the final concert on Thursday evening.
Jerusalem tells me how he spent years as an instrumentalist before he got his break, being called up out of the ranks of the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra where he was playing bassoon to stand in for a no-show tenor in Johann Strauss' The Gypsy Baron.
"I had always dreamed of being a singer," he says, "but I was told that the bassoon would be better for me. In a way, it was through playing the bassoon that I got my big chance."
Indeed he remembers seeing Jussi Bjoerling ("my favourite singer, I loved him so much") on stage as Belmonte in Il Seraglio while playing his bassoon in the orchestra pit.
Eventually, Jerusalem made his mark in the weightier world of Wagner and his performances as Siegfried in the 1990 Metropolitan Opera Ring and Tristan in the 1995 Bayreuth Tristan and Isolde are available on DVD.
"It was Wolfgang Wagner who asked me to sing Siegfried at Bayreuth," says Jerusalem. "He suggested that I might first do Gotterdammerung as that part is a little bit easier than what the character has to sing in Siegfried. But I was determined to do the more difficult one and he said, 'Okay, it's your choice'."
It proved to be a successful move and choosing roles is something the tenor will doubtlessly be discussing with the Lexus finalists this week. "Singers beware" is the basic message.
"There's a real problem with agents these days and too often they understand business better than they do music. They ask young singers to take on really heavy roles 10 or 15 years too early. Because, when those singers end up losing their voices, there's always another one coming along.
"The main thing this week will be to show the singers what they can do and warn them about starting too early with the heavy roles."
It's advice that will no doubt be reiterated when Jerusalem takes a public masterclass next Saturday afternoon. He admits he is a stickler for the text, saying Wagner considered the words were of equal importance to the musical setting.
"People have to understand what you're singing, otherwise you can't convey the emotions that are there in the music. "
As one of the judges at the 2007 Seoul International Music Competition, he had some disturbing revelations.
"The Asian singers often just know the world of the CD and don't know what they're singing about. And regardless of whether the words were German or Italian, they weren't coming through to the audience."
He found the contestants to be too fixated with the whole business of competitions.
"These things are very useful to see where you stand alongside other singers, but don't make too much of them. Basically, it's just a matter of singing arias whereas on the actual opera stage, it's the ensemble work that's most important."
He proudly mentions he has just conducted his students back in Germany in Mozart's Idomeneo.
Jerusalem says he is looking forward to hearing our young singers tackle Lieder which is his main field of activity these days.
He is also eager to return to Europe to sing Schubert's Winterreise in concert in Austria.
"It's just like opera, you're bringing the words to the audience and telling a story. All of the great song cycles, Dichterliebe, Schone Mullerin, Winterreise ... they're all stories."
Who knows - those who attend what promises to be a wonderfully entertaining masterclass next Saturday might hear a few tales from the master storyteller himself.
Performance
What: Lexus Song Quest finals
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Thursday 7.30pm
What: Masterclass
Where and when: Auckland University Music Theatre, 6 Symonds St, Saturday April 24, 1-4pm
Siegfried Jerusalem. Photo / Supplied
You would expect the country's premier singing competition to bring in top-notch judges and the Lexus Song Quest certainly does that.
In recent years it has been the likes of Grace Bumbry, Elizabeth Connell and Tom Krause who made the decisions that have set singers like Jonathan Lemalu, Anna Leese
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