One of the first things that the web threw at me when I started to research my placement was a news piece on this year's BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition.
The contest has been a huge event in the Welsh capital since the early 1980s, drawing contestants from all over the world to compete every two years in the summer.
This year's winner is Valentina Naforniţă, from the northern district of Glodeni in Moldova. (And she is only a few months older than me!)
Maybe it's because I'm Welsh that this contest seems more important than it actually is. But this is an international event and we should be pleased with whatever sort of cultural connection between Wales and Moldova it has created.
In a review of the 2011 contest, The Guardian attributes Naforniţă's success to her "quietly charismatic presence, her natural vibrancy, together with the silver gleam at the top of the voice". Beyond this, what more recognition of her talent is out there? A quick look around wikipedia reveals that the Cardiff Singer of the World page is currently available only in 4 languages and, strangely, there is no Romanian version of Naforniţă's own page. She does have a youtube account but with only two low quality recordings uploaded – still worth a listen if you like opera.
External Links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-13836344
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jun/20/cardiff-singer-of-the-world-review
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff_Singer_of_the_World
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentina_Naforni%C5%A3%C4%83
http://www.youtube.com/user/ValentinaNafornita
