Finalist Erin Morley performs Schubert’s “Im Frühling: Delphine”

American soprano Erin Morley understands Delphine, the heroine of Ernst Schulz’s poem of spring and love’s memories, set to music in 1826 by Franz Schubert. Indeed, she inhabited the role so successfully in the semifinals of the International Song Competition on Tuesday, she’s through to tonight’s final, which will be streamed live by www.plushmusic.tv at 6pm BST tonight.

‘She’s conflicted in her feelings,’ Erin explains. ‘She’s excited by the prospect of love, but at the same time she hesitates: love is such a nerve-wracking business!’

Erin, performing here with Laura Poe, reckons the rigors of the competition helped her understand Delphine’s character. ‘That same combination of enthusiasm and dread is pretty much what we’ve all been feeling at one moment or another,’ she laughs. ‘For Delphine, it’s young love; for us, it’s the love of song.’

How much dramatic work does Erin do to realise a character like Delphine? ‘As a singer. I never think in terms of being more or less “dramatic”,’ she says, ‘and I think the differences in delivery between opera and lied are less than people sometimes think. The important thing, in both disciplines, is to learn how to live inside the text.’