Operalia Announces Winners of 2009 Competition
On August 1, 2009, Operalia, Plácido Domingo’s worldwide opera competition, presented prizes to this year’s winners. Twenty-five-year-old Russian soprano Julia Novikova and 27-year-old Russian tenor Alexey Kudrya were awarded first prizes. Second prizes went to Americans soprano Angel Blue and bass Jordan Bisch, along with Greek tenor Dimitrios Flemotomos.
This year’s contest, which changes location every year, took place in Pécs and Budapest, Hungary. Members of the jury included, among others, Jean-Luc Choplin (general director of the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris), Jonathan Friend (artistic administrator of the Met), Ioan Holender (director of the Vienna State Opera), Antonio Moral (artistic director of the Teatro Real de Madrid), and Peter Katona (casting director of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London).
Operalia, which is open to singers from 18 to 30 years old, usually receives between 800 and 1,000 entries, from which approximately 40 are chosen for live auditions. There is no entry fee, and accompanists are provided. Operalia’s Organization Committee provides expenses for transportation and hotel accommodations in the audition city.
Past prize winners of the competition include tenor José Cura, soprano Elizabeth Futral, and mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato.
www.operalia.org
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Rupert Christiansen, who is the arts critic for the UK’s Telegraph publication, investigated the earnings of a famous opera singer who works regularly but is not a “superstar.” He found that many singers earned far more take-home pay 40 years ago than they do in 2009. Although hotel rates and plane fares have risen astronomically since 1960, singers fees are frequently lower.
As a result, many talented singers stop performing after a few years. When they want to have a family and need a steady income, performers may opt for teaching jobs that allow them to do concerts and the occasional opera, or take a more lucrative day job and perform locally when possible.
Christiansen notes that even those who continue in their singing career probably supplement their income, especially in today’s economy, by doing occasional single performances for corporate events, private parties, etc., which don’t tax their vocal health or cut into their operatic or personal schedules yet pay very well.
www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/rupertchristiansen/5899313/How-much-do-opera-singers-earn.html
Chicago Symphony Tries Jumbotron Screens at Ravinia
Chicago Symphony CEO Welz Kauffman finds that the huge screens which have recently been set at either side of the Ravinia stage are very popular with audiences. The feedback he has so far received is 99 percent positive. Concertgoers tell him that they learn a great deal more about the music when they can see what each performer is doing. Most importantly, Kauffman has stopped getting complaints from people who could not see well from the seats they had purchased.
The Metropolitan Opera brought movie theater audiences closer to opera. Now, the Chicago Symphony is bringing actual concertgoers closer to the live music with Ravinia’s mammoth screens.
www.suntimes.com/entertainment music/
1697280,CST-FTR-rav03.article
