
Anna-Louise Cole Wins Dame Heather Begg Memorial Award
By David Salazar(Credit: Jade Ferguson, Visual Poets Society)
Anna-Louise Cole has received the Melba Opera Trust’s Dame Heather Begg Memorial Award.
As the prize’s recipient, she will also get $25,000 to support her opera career.
“I’m still completely floored…genuinely. I really can’t quite believe it,” said Cole in a recent interview with Melba Opera Trust.
The soprano has appeared at Opera Australia in leading roles such operas as “Aida,” “Turandot,” “Der Ring des Nibelungen,” and “Tannhäuser.” She also took on the role of Lady Macbeth in “Macbeth” with Opera Queensland. She plans to use the prize money to help her career abroad.
“Casting decisions are only made by hearing people in person, and the distance from Europe makes it challenging for Australian singers to establish themselves overseas. Opera is an acoustic artform, and they just have to hear your voice. They have to see you perform. And so, it means that trying to build a career over there is tricky. It takes time,” Cole, who is now based in Germany, added.
The Dame Heather Begg Memorial Award was established in 2013 in honor of the New Zealand opera singer who had a major international career while also performing frequently in her native home and Australia. It supports an emerging singer from Australia or New Zealand.
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