Orpheus benefit. Belvedere Young Opera Soloists Competition Diary / Article

Before the start of the media jury, Bo van der Melen, editor-in-chief of the Dutch magazine Place de l’Opera, asked if the prize for the first cello could be returned. No, he was answered, but promised to pass on his compliments to Inga Ozola.

Enthusiastic epithets were earned both by the orchestra of the Jūrmala festival in general and by conductor Mārtiņš Ozoliņš, who conducted the final with incredible delicacy, did not hurry, did not dehydrate, did not scold any of the singers, but persevered; it had nothing to do with on-call service.

The orchestra (as usual, the musicians of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra and the National Opera) expressed their attitude towards the participants of the competition on foot, beating them quietly on the floor after the performances of the young singers they sympathized with.

But those sitting in Dzintari Concert Hall did not control their emotions. Each was applauded before the performance, each was accompanied by applause and applause after the performance, called “bravo” and “brava”.

Loud voices stood out in the overall choir: many of Belvedere’s participants, who had already finished the competition, had to watch it to the end. And not in vain. The semi-finalists, but not the finalists, received two engagements and two invitations to participate in the Covent Garden Youth Program. That’s about what happened openly. They want to believe that something happened in secret, behind the scenes – meetings, demonstrations, agreements. In any case, several agencies, including the legendary Askonas Holt, had sent representatives to Dzintari.

There is no more practical tender than the Belvedere tender with its precise and honest “commodity-seller” link.

But it, like all music competitions in the world, is unpredictable. A few years ago, Izabella Gabore, president of the Belvedere competition and the widow of its founder, Hans Gabor, director of the Vienna Chamber Opera, admitted: “We can never guess anything. Because before and during the competition, many people sound completely different.” Oh yes; In the local selection rounds, the singers win with the most favorable repertoire, but then end up in the jury ‘s choice of mandatory arias and competition traditions mill

As for the orchestra that appears in the finals: it’s different. Who could have imagined that the voice of Ava Doda would miraculously open directly with the orchestra, come into complete harmony with it, fly up, fill the whole hall? This little miracle did not give the Irish singer a prize, but it probably played a role in her engagement. Or the insane excitement, due to which the contestant suddenly jumps to another tonality in the middle of the term – for a few seconds, but that is enough to lose everything.

The world of opera in general is very complicated. So how not to praise the Ukrainian Nikita Ivasečko, who in all three rounds showed himself more as a vocalist – as a real musician, or three great sopranos, the Belgian Louise Foru, the Frenchman Marianne Crew, our Ilze Grevel-Skarain, who have surprisingly nothing but stability (it ‘s an incredibly valuable feature), or Vitorio de Campo and Tajun Gong, who sang as if they had already won and there was no longer any competition but a concert.

Many want to be praised. And many were also praised at the closing ceremony – the perfectly working management of Dzintari Concert Hall, pianists who were able to more than properly accompany more than a hundred singers in the fourth, listeners who muted the sound of mobile phones all week, even the weather in Jūrmala.

And, of course, God Himself wanted to be glorified by countertenor Cymon Mura, who in the final struck a note after a note in Glick’s aria, “Che farò senz’Euridice” as a saver in a string of pearls, without trying to beautify it with rhinestones or even diamonds. His Orpheus, who lost the Eurydice, was rewarded with everything the Belvedere competition could give that night. Except for the Audience Award. But what to do. There is no need to explain anything to those who saw and heard Vitorio de Campo.

Winners of the competition:

• 1st prize (7,000 euros), media jury prize (1,500 euros) and engagement of the Cologne Opera – countertenor Kimmon Mura (USA)

• II prize (3,500 euros) and an engagement at the German Opera on the Rhine in Düsseldorf – for baritone Nikita Ivasečko (Ukraine)

• III prize (2500 euros) – for bass baritone Rūben Mbonambi (South Africa)

• Audience Award (2000 euros) and Dzintari Concert Hall engagement – basam Vitorio de Campo (Italy)

• CS Rising Stars Award (invitation to perform at the Carinthian Summer Music Festival in Austria) – mezzo-soprano Maija Goura (Israel)

• Wil Keune Prize for singers under 25 (800 euros) and Dzintari Concert Hall engagement for soprano Avai Doda (Ireland)

• Engagement of the German Opera in Berlin – for bass baritone Tajun Jong (South Korea)

• Engagement at the Covent Garden Royal Opera (Jette Parker’s Young Artists Program) – for tenor Tristan Blanche (Switzerland) and bass baritone Matthew Lugowski (Poland)

• Engagement of the Dresden Zemper Opera – for tenor Albert Memeti (Poland)

• Erfurt Theater Engagement – for tenor Tristan Blanche (Switzerland)

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