American soprano Kathleen O’Mara and Chinese bass-baritone Le Bu won several awards this Saturday in Bombay, including the 1st Prize, in the 2024 edition of the Operalia competition, the competition organized by Placido Domingo.
In 2023 in Cape Town, 2 French singers, Julie Roset and mezzo-soprano Eugébie Joneau won the 1st and 2nd prizes of the Operalia competition. This year, no French representative was selected among the semi-finalists and finalists of the major lyrical singing competition created and directed by Placido Domingo since 1993, which was held at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Bombay (India) from September 15 to 21.
10 years after Rachel Willis-Sorensen in Los Angeles, it was another American soprano Kathleen O’Mara who was crowned this year. Alongside her on the highest step of the competition, the Chinese bass-baritone Le Bu who succeeds the South Korean Stephano Park. The last Chinese winner of the competition, Ao Li, was also a bass-baritone and had been crowned in Verona in 2013.
Kathleen O’Mara and Le Bu also win the Birgit Nilsson Prize
Kathleen O’Mara and Le Bu also won the Birgit Nilsson Prize, awarded to singers performing arias by Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner. Noteworthy was the fine performance of Azerbaijani mezzo-soprano Elmina Hasan, who came in 2nd and won two other award categories: the Pepita Embil Zarzuela Prize and the Rolex Audience Award.
Also read
American tenor Angel Roméro, also a 2nd Prize winner, also won the Don Plácido Domingo Ferrer Zarzuela Prize. A real career booster, the Operalia Competition is a fantastic springboard for young sacred lyric singers who form lasting relationships. Thus, the winners of the 2022 and 2023 editions, Anthony Leon and Julie Roset respectively, will be reunited on January 7, 2025 on the stage of the Dvořák Rudolfinum Hall in Prague for a duet recital.
The final of the 2024 Operalia Competition is available in replay on the medici.tv platform
Philippe Gault
Find out the latest news on the Classic
