The 10th Leyla Gencer Voice Competition is set to take place on Sept. 22-27, 2024. Co-organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, Borusan Sanat, and the Accademia Teatro alla Scala, the event will be making its return for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. The competition is open for all singers between ages 18-32 with the application {…}
(Credits: Maria José Siri official website / Chris Gloag / Zoe Cura / Georg List) Italian television channel Rai5 has announced broadcasts for the week of Feb. 14 – Feb. 20, 2021. The opera broadcasts will be dedicated to composer Giacomo Puccini. The stream on Feb. 14 will be dedicated to late soprano Mirella Freni. OPERAS The broadcast of Niccolò {…}
Leyla Gencer is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, singer to come out of Turkey. Born on Oct. 10, 1928, the soprano grew up in a rather stable family, though she would lose her father a young age. While she did attend the Istanbul Conservatory, she dropped out and started to study privately. She made her operatic debut {…}
Opera aficionados d’un certain âge remember Leyla Gencer with almost idolatrous admiration and no small degree of reverence. With the passing of time, most younger devotees of the lyric theatre have about as much knowledge of “La Diva Turca” as they do Maria Reining or Toti dal Monte. Born Ayshe Leyla Ceyrekgil in Istanbul sometime between 1918-1928, Gencer enjoyed a {…}
Turkish mezzo Ezgi Karakaya is the winner of the ninth annual Leyla Gencer Voice Competition. She also took home the audience award. The second place winner was German-Italian mezzo Anna Doris Capitelli with Polish tenor Piotr Buszewski coming in third place. Karakaya walks away with a 12,500 euro prize while Doris gets 7,500 euros and Buszewski wins 3,500 euros. It {…}
March Madness is coming to a close. With it, we’ve gone through memorable mad scenes in opera, breathtaking historic moments, and a little bit of musical history on Lucia’s famous mad scene. To close this year’s series, I want to go through my favorite recordings of “Lucia di Lammermoor.” We’ve focused a lot on this opera as it has the {…}
Leyla Gencer, born on Oct 10, 1928, was one of the greatest bel canto sopranos to ever grace the opera stage. She dominated a plethora of often over-looked Donizetti operas and sang everything she could by Bellini. And most importantly, she dominated some of the lesser known works of Giuseppe Verdi, a composer she may share a birthday with (his {…}
December 26 marks the premiere of three major operas of the Bel canto repertoire. Donizetti’s “Anna Bolena” premiered the day after Christmas in 1830 while his “Lucrezia Borgia” premiered in 1833 of that same date. Meanwhile, Bellini’s “Norma” premiered on the 26th of December in 1831. All three works share similarities in that they are some of the most difficult works {…}