Operalia in 2009 is held in Hungary - everything before the Final is in Pécs, and the Final with 12 singers will be at the Opera House in Budapest (1st August) and then again back to Pécs because there will be a Gala concert (free access!!!) with the finalists and of course with Placido.
I'm really happy that this year my country is hosting this event, but I don't know the reasons... They are saying that Placido really loved to do concerts in Pécs during the last years so he thought that it could be fun to do the Operalia in Pécs. Maybe also the local politicians did a great on lobbying at the Operalia organizers because the project "European Capital of Culture - 2010 Pécs" - and they made this competition part of the next years cultural events. But as it is totally impossible to "do a great job as a politician" I better leave this argument and write about the singers...
Today at 6pm they did the Semifinals where 24 singers participated. Now it is 10 pm and I have no personal connections/insider there so the results will be published tomorrow...
But I've already checked out some of the 24 singers entered in the semifinals, and I just want to share some thougts.
I prefer the singers with not too much professional background. A lot of them - ca. the 50-60% - have already participated at several competitions and many of them have already worked in bigger opera houses or performed in different important concert venues. Yes, of course, they are good, but I prefer the less known singers. Evidently now from the 24 I can not tell you which one will be in the final round, but I have favorites...
Here you are a small selection:
Good luck for the participants!!!!!!
I'm really happy that this year my country is hosting this event, but I don't know the reasons... They are saying that Placido really loved to do concerts in Pécs during the last years so he thought that it could be fun to do the Operalia in Pécs. Maybe also the local politicians did a great on lobbying at the Operalia organizers because the project "European Capital of Culture - 2010 Pécs" - and they made this competition part of the next years cultural events. But as it is totally impossible to "do a great job as a politician" I better leave this argument and write about the singers...
Today at 6pm they did the Semifinals where 24 singers participated. Now it is 10 pm and I have no personal connections/insider there so the results will be published tomorrow...
But I've already checked out some of the 24 singers entered in the semifinals, and I just want to share some thougts.
I prefer the singers with not too much professional background. A lot of them - ca. the 50-60% - have already participated at several competitions and many of them have already worked in bigger opera houses or performed in different important concert venues. Yes, of course, they are good, but I prefer the less known singers. Evidently now from the 24 I can not tell you which one will be in the final round, but I have favorites...
Here you are a small selection:
- the only Hungarian is: Brigitta Simon (soprano) - she is in the Zarzuela round. (The only thing I've found on youtube was this - she is singing for a bellydancer, if she is actually on this recording... but I think it is funny :) - bit surreal as well...)
- one of bests - a Russian tenor, Alexey Kudrya - hope he will make it until the final and then perform this!!!!! haha... but he could be serious as Lenski...
- then we have a Twitterer - Valda Wilson @valdissima and she is from Australia - as my ex-singing-teacher - so GO Aussies GO!!!!
- we have only 2 mezzo-sopranos - is this normal???? I want mooooore mezzos!!!! WHERE ARE THEY???
- then we have 2 singers from China - the tenor, from the clips on YouTube, seems to me a little robot. A really well trained robot with beautiful voice, but too robotish for me. Evidently he can sing as many highC-s as he have to... but unfortunately asian male singers are not my thing, so let's see the others...
- USA baritone, Lee Poulis is a cutie
- and Kostas Smoriginas, from Lithuania is a powerful bass
- and we have millions of sopranos. Just youtube them. They are everywhere.... :) A Queen of the Night for example....
Good luck for the participants!!!!!!
