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Her lungs are an anatomical mystery but her heart isn’t a matter for science-it’s for the stage where she belongs. I’d give McIntosh the edge, and only slightly, for the heft and bite she found across music as different as Handel and Rossini: a crispy, poignant aria from Julius Ceasar and a relentlessly charming “Naqui’all affanno … Non più mesta” from Cenerentola as a finale. Not enough, I’d predict, to stand against the evening’s duel for first prize between mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh and soprano Sarah Dufresne.

Not as confident as you might expect for a go-to aria, but warm and centered, with a dollop of cream. Mezzo-soprano Valerie Eickhoff went for it, sounding her best of the three rounds, and ending with “Una voce poco fa” that she sang at the very beginning of the competition. There is also that desperate, magical energy at the end of a competition when even the phlegmatic personalities find some hidden-because easily disappointed-passion. German mezzo-soprano Valerie Eickhoff performing in the final round of Aria division at the Concours Musical International de Montréal Ⓒ Tam Photography

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