Operalia World Opera Contest to be held in Moscow

PanARMENIAN.Net - Operalia, Plácido Domingo’s annual World Opera Contest, will be held this year in Moscow from July 18 to 24, at the historic Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater. Forty young competitors in all voice registers and from all over the world will be flown to the Russian capital to participate in the preliminary round before an international panel of experts; twenty of the singers will be admitted to the semi-finals and ten to the finals – a gala concert to be conducted by Plácido Domingo himself.

"I am often asked how Operalia came into existence. Through the years, I have always taken a special interest in promising young singers, and I have thought a lot about the enormous difficulties these artists face as they start their careers. It is essential for young singers to come to the attention of those impresarios, managers, casting directors who can further their professional careers,” Plácido Domingo said on the subject of this competition.

"My purpose in Operalia is to help identify not only the best voices, but also to discover those singers whose personalities, characters and powers of interpretation show that they have the potential to become complete artists,” said world-renowned artist.

This year’s prizes will include Two First Prizes ($30,000), Two Second Prizes ($20,000), Two Third Prizes ($10,000) etc.

OPERALIA was created in 1993 with the aim of locating, encouraging and fostering some of the most gifted young vocal artists of our time. Each year it is held in a different city, and each year Maestro Domingo selects the panel of judges from directors of some of the world’s major opera ensembles, who are in a position not only to award the prize money but also to assist the youthful singers they have heard to find work.

Previous OPERALIA winners include Ainhoa Arteta, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Joseph Calleja, José Cura, Joyce DiDonato, Giuseppe Filianoti, Elizabeth Futral, Joseph Kaiser, Inva Mula, Eric Owens, Erwin Schrott, Nina Stemme, Ludovic Tézier, Rolando Villazon and many other current stars of opera stages around the world.