(Photo: Alexander Thompson) Sonya Yoncheva has always played by her own rules. She’s never allowed anyone to box her in and has never followed a specific route. She has championed rarely performed like “Il Pirata,” “Siberia,” and “Medea” among others throughout her career, experimenting with all kinds of directors and often arriving at some truly immersive and original interpretations of {…}
On July 26, 2019, Spanish tenor Xabier Anduaga (along with fellow competitor Adriana Gonzalez) achieved one of opera’s most coveted distinctions as he joined the circle of Operalia 1st Prize winners. The Operalia competition has been transforming talented young singers into stars of the opera scene since 1993, with winners frequently becoming headliners at top venues across the globe. This {…}
(Credit: Daniil Rabovsky) Cherubini’s “Medée” has never been a major repertory staple. After all the work requires a star soprano who can bring the drama to life not only through fearless singing, but equally potent acting. Maria Callas, for many, is the last truly iconic interpreter of the title role. For the new production by Simon Stone, the Salzburg Festival has {…}
Xabier Anduaga and Adriana Gonzalez have taken home first prize at the Operalia Competition. The two singers also won the zarzuela prizes. Anduaga won the Plácido Domingo Ferrer Prize while Gonzalez won the Pepita Embil Prize. Second prize went to baritone Gihoon Kim and mezzo-soprano Maria Kataeva while third prize went to soprano Christina Nilsson and countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen. {…}
Guatemalan soprano Adriana Gonzalez is the first musician in her entire family, making her meteoric rise in the opera world all the more essential to her and her loved ones. She has the potential to go even further this very week when she competes in the Operalia Competition, one month after appearing the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. {…}
Plácido Domingo’s international opera competition, Operalia, will make its way to the Czech Republic for the very first time this summer. The National Theatre, “one of the symbols of the country’s national identity [counting] more than 130 years of independent artistic performances” according to the press release, and the Domingo-Mozart-Prague organization will host the 27th annual Operalia competition. The Czech {…}
The Opera Competition has announced that its 2019 edition will be held in Prague, the Czech Republic. The competition, known to launch the next generation of opera singers, will begin accepting applications between Nov. 15, 2018, and February 1, 2019. The competition is open to singers of all voice types, between the ages of 18 and 32 years old and who are {…}
The Operalia 2017 competition has come to an end with Adela Zaharia and Levy Sekgapane as the winners of the first prizes. I sat through the entire transmission, listening to a truly talented class of singers, many of whom already have the musical maturity and performance acumen to be major figures in the opera world in the not-so-distant future. With {…}
Plácido Domingo’s famed Operalia Competition will head to South Korea next summer, according to The Opera Critic. This is the third time that the competition is coming to the Asian continent in the competition’s history. The first time that Operalia was held in Asia was in 1997 when it headed to Toyko. That year’s winner was Chang Yong Liao of {…}
Kazakhstan will play host to the 25th Operalia Competition in July 2017. The famed competition will be making its return to Eastern Europe after making an appearance there in 2011 at Moscow. It also took place in Pécs and Budapest in 2009. Otherwise the competition has mainly done rounds in Western Europe, North America and Asia (Tokyo and Beijing). Last {…}