Mexican baritone Carlos Arámbula has won the Radio Filarmonía Singing Contest.

Mexican mezzo-soprano Itzeli Jáuregui took home Second Prize and Peruvian soprano Luz Merlina Honorio was the Third Prize winner. Luz Merlina Honorio also won the Best Peruvian voice award while Mexican tenor Osvaldo Martínez took home the Dempsey Rivera Special Award.

The finalists included the soprano Luisa Mordel (Mexico), soprano Abigail Favela Ramos (Mexico), soprano Zyanya Cruz (Mexico), soprano Jacinta Barbachano (Mexico), soprano Diana Madueño (Peru), baritone Leonardo Domínguez (Peru) and bass Raúl Morales (Mexico).

As special prizes, some finalists will perform in the 2023 edition of the Festival Amazonas de Ópera in Brazil. Luz Merlina Honorio will participate at the semifinals of the Maria Callas singing contest. Carlos Arámbula will sing the main role of the Brazilian opera “O Contractador dos Diamantes” by Francisco Mignone. Itzeli Jáuregui will sing the role of Smeton in Gaetano Donizetti’s “Anna Bolena,” while Raúl Morales will sing the role of Nilakantha in Debibes’s “Lakmé.”

The semifinals took place in the auditorium of the Ricardo Palma University and the final was presented at the Gran Teatro Nacional del Perú.

The jury featured Peruvian tenor Ernesto Palacio, who has been the president of the jury since its first edition. On this occasion he was accompanied by Alejandro Chacón, Argentine stage director and artistic director of the Ópera de Colombia; Fernando Luiz Malheiro, director of the Festival Amazonas de Ópera in Brazil; Andrés Rodríguez, first vice president of Ópera Latinoamérica OLA; and José Velasco Guerrero, Spanish artistic agent.

The Radio Filarmonía singing contest began in 2012 with an emphasis on spotlighting new opera singers in Peru. The 9th edition was postponed due to the pandemic and this last edition was opened to singers in all Latin America. Singers from Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Costa Rica and Mexico participated in the contest.