Music Review  (continued from Home Page and Reprinted from April 3, 2007 The New York Times)

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Were they the best young singers in America? Probably not. Some were excellent. Some were all right. No competition is definitive: rather than achievement, the judges can only evaluate a given singer’s performance on a given day.

The most common flaws of the afternoon were overemoting and undersinging; more energy from the pit, rather than the gentle but leisurely approach of the conductor Marco Armiliato, might have helped. Even for Angela Meade, an impressive soprano, more spark would have benefited “Ach, ich liebte” from Mozart’s “Entführung aus dem Serail” — a small-scale choice for a strong voice that proceeded to let loose with ease and authority in “Casta Diva” (from Bellini’s “Norma”).

She was certainly a deserving winner, as was Michael Fabiano — at 22 the youngest of the singers — whose full, warm tenor had a presence well beyond his years in “Torna ai felici dì” from “Le Villi” by Puccini and Lensky’s aria from Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin,” and who, to judge from the applause, was the audience favorite. Amber L. Wagner won on the strength of a solid if uninflected dramatic soprano.

On Sunday, those were the most impressive performances. Disella Larusdottir, a soprano who had been reliably breathtaking at every earlier stage of the competition, had lost some of the “float” to her tone — she may have been indisposed — and failed to advance. But Alek Shrader, a light tenor who had sounded undersupported in the semifinals, showed off to advantage with Donizetti’s bravura “Ah! mes amis” (from “The Daughter of the Regiment”); the high C’s may not have been beautiful, but they were clearly easy for him, and he won handily.

Jamie Barton, a mezzo-soprano, was another winner who would have been helped by more crackle from Mr. Armiliato in a pretty but underpowered “Priva son d’ogni conforto,” from Handel’s “Giulio Cesare,” but she showed range, if slightly overdone histrionics, by following it with the witch’s aria from “Hänsel und Gretel.” The sixth winner was Ryan Smith, a tight, light tenor.

There are plenty of other singers who failed to advance who could have acquitted themselves as well. The watchword, as in any competitive event, remains, “Wait until next year.”