EUGENE -- Two young women who are yet to sing opera in the U.S. are the
soloists here tomorrow in the Oregon Bach Festival's finale concert of
Mahler's Second Symphony, conducted by Helmuth Rilling.

Both of them show enormous promise; one of them is certain to be a much
sought-after star soprano within a couple of years.

Camilla Nylund, 31, Platts, 26, both have terrific voices, but Platts
doesn't know if she will get into opera soon... or at all. The Canadian
alto feels comfortable with oratorio work; she made her U.S. debut at the
festival last year, in a wonderful performance of the Bach B Minor Mass.

Nylund is another story. Even without a single opera performance in this
country, the singer is well on her way to stardom after just a four-year
career.

Tall, blonde, statuesque, Finnish and a junior version of Karita Mattila,
Nylund was born in Vaasa, and was trained in Austria and Germany. Four
years ago, as she was getting her degree from the Mozarteum, she got a
contract with the Hannover Staatsoper, started with Michaela, and sang
dozens of roles since ranging from the `Fledermaus' Rosalinda to the
`Meistersinger' Eva (where she draws the line for Wagner... for now).

When it's up to her, she favors Mozartean roles, from the Countess
to Pamina to Vitellia to Fiordiligi.  She is getting into Strauss: a
`Capriccio' Countess and Arabella coming up in Dresden, which will be her
new company beginning next year. (Also scheduled: her marriage to a Dutch
baritone, Anton Saris, next month.)

As Sinopoli is leaving opera conducting chores behind in Dresden, Nylund
says, Semyon Bychkov is taking over -- he is the conductor she will work
with.

Just as her voice has a range from lyric to spinto soprano (although there
is a strange lack of Verdi roles in her repertory), Nylund's interest is
widespread as well:  along with an `Onegin' Tatiana, for example, she is
scheduling lots of oratorio work, especially if she can sing with Rilling.

`I love to sing with him. He always trusts me, he gives me the possibility
to do many things that other conductors would not expect me to do. He has
such good ears, he can hear the potential in the voice.'

It was Rilling who gave Nylund her Verdi Requiem in her recent Canadian
debut (in Ottawa), and a number of major roles with his Stuttgart
Bachakademie, including a recorded performance of the Denisov completion
of the Schubert `Lazarus.'

Earlier this week, Nylund made her American debut* in a Rilling-conducted
Dvorak `Stabat Mater' at the festival.  (*I know she auditioned at the
Chicago Lyric last year, but I don't think she has yet performed in a
Chicago concert with Rilling -- that may be coming up soon.  Otherwise,
this is Nylund's *West Coast* debut.)

Janos Gereben/SF
(in Eugene to 7/11)
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