Finalists Announced For International Opera Awards 2019

The International Opera Awards today announces the finalists for its 2019 Awards.

The annual red-carpet event - which celebrates achievement in opera around the globe over the 2018 calendar year - recognises excellence in a wide range of categories that cover performance, design and direction as well as education and outreach.

London's Royal Opera House leads the 2019 shortlist, with recognition in four separate categories (Chorus, New Production, Opera Orchestra, and World Premiere), with Op ra de Lyon close behind with three (Chorus, Education and Outreach and World Premiere). Soprano Pretty Yende, winner of last year's Readers' Award, is this year nominated for Female Singer alongside Anna Caterina Antonacci, Daniela Barcellona, Sabine Devieilhe, Rosa Feola and Asmik Grigorian. Star tenor Stuart Skelton, winner of the Male Singer Award in 2014, receives a nomination for Recording (Solo Recital) for his debut solo recording Shining Knight, facing competition from Javier Camarena, Max Emanuel Cencic, St phane Degout, Elsa Dreisig and Anita Rachvelishvili.

Opera lovers from around the world are invited to vote in the Readers' Award, with the nominees including the stellar talents of Ildar Abdrazakov, Michael Fabiano, Vittorio Grigolo, Thomas Hampson, Barbara Hannigan, Dame Sarah Connolly, Ana Maria Martinez and Sonya Yoncheva. Voting opens today on the International Opera Awards' website and runs until Friday 8 March.

The full list of finalists is detailed below.

The shortlist was compiled by an impressive international jury chaired by John Allison, editor of Opera magazine (the Founding Media Partner of the Awards) and classical music critic of The Daily Telegraph. The winners of all categories, except the Readers' Award, will also be decided by the jury.

The winners in all 18 categories are announced at a glittering Gala Event at London's Sadler's Wells on 29 April 2019, together with special awards for Philanthropy, Leadership and Lifetime Achievement.

Live performances from stars of the opera world, with full orchestra, are now a defining feature of the evening and have, in recent years, included memorable moments with such renowned singers as Anna Bonitatibus, Stuart Skelton, Lawrence Brownlee and Ermonela Jaho. Performers for 2019 will be announced in due course. Petroc Trelawny hosts the event for the fourth year, while BBC Radio 3 will again broadcast highlights from the evening shortly after the event.

John Allison, chair of the Jury, said: It's gratifying that we received a record-breaking number of nominations for this year's International Opera Awards, and I feel that this excitement is reflected in the shortlists we're announcing today. Spanning six continents, these shortlists chosen by our international jury reflect the truly cosmopolitan nature of the art form, and the vibrancy of work being done despite challenges faced by opera companies large and small everywhere.

The Awards, founded by philanthropist Harry Hyman in 2012, aim to raise the profile of opera as an art form, to recognise and reward success in opera and to generate funds to provide bursaries for aspiring operatic talent from around the world. Since 2012 over 330,000 has been raised by the Opera Awards Foundation.

2019 FINALISTS

CHORUS

Bolshoi Opera
Dutch National Opera
Op ra de Lyon
Royal Opera House
Semperoper Dresden
Teatro alla Scala

CONDUCTOR

Marc Albrecht
Myung-Whun Chung
Diego Fasolis
Ren Jacobs
Michele Mariotti
Mark Wigglesworth

DESIGNER

Paolo Fantin
Johannes Leiacker
Rebecca Ringst
Katrin Lea Tag
Leslie Travers
Pierre-Andr Weitz

DIRECTOR

Vasily Barkhatov
Calixto Bieito
Rodula Gaitanou
Katie Mitchell
David Pountney
Krzysztof Warlikowski

EDUCATION & OUTREACH

English Touring Opera
Festival d'Aix-en-Provence
Komische Oper
Op ra de Lyon
Pittsburgh Opera
Umculo Cape Festival

FEMALE SINGER

Anna Caterina Antonacci
Daniela Barcellona
Sabine Devieilhe
Rosa Feola
Asmik Grigorian
Pretty Yende

FESTIVAL

Festival della Valle d'Itria
Garsington Opera
Jan ek Brno Festival
Opera Holland Park
Prototype Festival
Ruhrtriennale

MALE SINGER

Charles Castronovo
Alex Esposito
Brandon Jovanovich
John Osborn
Xavier Sabata
Georg Zeppenfeld

NEW PRODUCTION

Barber: Vanessa, d. Keith Warner (Glyndebourne)
Britten: Gloriana, d. David McVicar (Teatro Real)
Jan ek: From the House of the Dead, d. Krzysztof Warlikowski (Royal Opera House)
Jan ek: Jen fa, d. Katie Mitchell (Dutch National Opera)
Verdi: La traviata, d. Deborah Warner (Th tre des Champs-Elys es)
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde, d. Dmitri Tcherniakov (Staatsoper Berlin)

NEWCOMER

Julia Burbach (director)
Maxim Emelyanychev (conductor)
Ben Glassberg (conductor)
Thomas Guggeis (conductor)
Joana Mallwitz (conductor)
Zou Shuang (director)

OPERA COMPANY

Deutsche Oper am Rhein
Gothenburg Opera
Houston Grand Opera
Op ra National de Paris
Opera Vlaanderen
Theater an der Wien

OPERA ORCHESTRA

LA Opera
MusicAeterna
Novaya Opera
Royal Danish Opera
Royal Opera House
Staatsoper Berlin

READERS' AWARD

Ildar Abdrazakov
Sarah Connolly
Michael Fabiano
Vittorio Grigolo
Thomas Hampson
Barbara Hannigan
Ana Mar a Mart nez
Sonya Yoncheva

RECORDING (COMPLETE OPERA)

Dean: Hamlet (Opus Arte)
Hal vy: La Reine de Chypre (Palazzetto Bru Zane)
Monteverdi: Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (Soli Deo Gloria)
Rossini: Semiramide (Opera Rara)
Verdi: Giovanna d'Arco (Decca)
Wagner: Die Meistersinger von N rnberg (Deutsche Grammophon)

RECORDING (SOLO RECITAL)

Javier Camarena: Contrabandista (Decca)
Max Emanuel Cencic: Porpora Arias (Decca)
St phane Degout: Enfers (Harmonia Mundi)
Elsa Dreisig: Miroir(s) (Erato)
Anita Rachvelishvili: Anita (Sony)
Stuart Skelton: Shining Knight (ABC Classics)

REDISCOVERED WORK

Donizetti: L'Ange de Nisida (Opera Rara)
Goldschmidt: Beatrice Cenci (Bregenz Festival)
Hasse: Artaserse (Pinchgut Opera)
Mascagni: Isabeau (Opera Holland Park)
Paderewski: Manru (Polish National Opera)
Stanford: The Travelling Companion (New Sussex Opera)
Tate: The Lodger (Stadttheater Bremerhaven)
van Gilse: Thijl (Utrecht Student Orchestra)

WORLD PREMIERE

Beecher: Sky on Swings (Opera Philadelphia)
Benjamin: Lessons in Love and Violence (Royal Opera House)
Debussy/Van Parys: Usher (Staatsoper Berlin)
Kurt g: Fin de partie (Teatro alla Scala)
Langer: Rhondda Rips It Up! (Welsh National Opera)
Larcher: Das Jagdgewehr (Bregenz Festival)
Raskatov: GerMANIA (Op ra de Lyon)
Wainwright: Hadrian (Canadian Opera Company)

YOUNG SINGER

Julien Behr
Benjamin Bernheim
Jodie Devos
Kangmin Justin Kim
Soraya Mafi
Siyabonga Maqungo
Amanda Woodbury
Marina Viotti

2019 JURY

David Agler
Michael Ajzenstadt
John Allison
Shirley Apthorp
John Berry
Mihai Cosma
Peter de Caluwe
Xavier Cester
James Clutton
Serge Dorny
Cori Ellison
Umberto Fanni
Neil Fisher
Lauren Flanigan
George Hall
Brenda Hurley
Robert Koerner
Alek Laskowski
Joanna C. Lee
Elizabeth Llewellyn
George Loomis
Max Loppert
Fiona Maddocks
Njabulo Madlala
Andrew Mellor
Susanne Mentzer
Christoph Meyer
Barbara Minghetti
Annilese Miskimmon
Hein Mulders
Eric Owens
Nicholas Payne
Gerhard Persch
Anna Picard
Valeriy Serkin
Matthew Shilvock
Ken Smith
Carlos Maria Solare
Birgitta Svend n
Lyndon Terracini
Thomas Yaksic
Francesca Zambello

NOTES TO EDITORS

Mazars
Mazars is an international, integrated and independent organisation, specialising in audit, accountancy, advisory, tax and legal services. As of 1 January 2019, Mazars operates throughout the 83 countries that make up its integrated partnership. Mazars draws upon the expertise of 23,000 women and men led by 1000 partners. It assists clients of all sizes, from SMEs to mid-caps and global players as well as start-ups and public organisations, at every stage of their development. In the UK, Mazars has approximately 140 partners and over 1,700 employees serving clients from 19 offices and is ranked one of the top 10 firms nationally.
http://www.mazars.com

BBC Radio 3
Since it launched in 1946, the Third Programme/BBC Radio 3 has been a bold + in the cultural world. It is one of the world's foremost presenters, creators, commissioners and curators across classical, folk, world, jazz and contemporary music as well as drama, philosophy and ideas. The station is also the most significant commissioner of new and contemporary music in the UK, with 35 new works commissioned annually and broadcasts over 600 concerts a year, including live broadcasts from the greatest classical music festival in the world (BBC Proms). Radio 3's In Concert programme alone reaches the equivalent of 250 packed concert halls a week, and the BBC Orchestras and Choirs give around 400 concerts a year in over 60 UK locations. The station has always nurtured extraordinary artistic talents, provided a platform for important scientific and political debates/announcements, and broadcast ground-breaking experimental drama always while delivering its core aim of connecting audiences with pioneering music and culture.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3

Opera Magazine
Described by The Daily Telegraph as 'the bible of the industry', Opera magazine has been the world's leading commentator on the lyric stage since 1950. Providing coverage of operatic events through a mixture of features, reviews (live performances, recordings, books) and analysis, plus monthly listings of events worldwide and its famous 'We hear that' section, the magazine has an unrivalled network of international correspondents, covering performances from around the globe.
http://www.opera.co.uk

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