This year, the event will be called the Armel Opera Competition and Festival with Mezzo and Duna Television. Also for the first time this year, the two top prize winners will each take home EUR 10,000.
As in the past two years, the competition jury will assess not only singers' voices, but their talents as performers.
"The winner will not be the young talent with the most exquisite vocal capabilities or the most beautiful singing voice; he or she will be the "best performer", who meets the all-round requirements of the genre, which includes not only singing, but also stage movement and acting, all to the highest standard," says production office Armel.
The competition will again feather five opera houses, but two of them are joining the event for the first time: the Josef Kajetán Tyl Theatre of Pilsen and the Opera Krakowska from Krakow, Poland. Returning to the competition will be Den Nye Opera of Bergen, the Dicapo Opera Theatre from New York and the Csokonai Theatre from the Hungarian city of Debrecen, Hungary.
Armel chief and a founder of the opera competition Ágnes Havas said another novelty of this year's contest would be a new venue for the first round: Moscow's Vishnevskaya Opera Center, whose artistic director Galina Vishnevskaya will chair the jury.
The first round will take place in April. The second round will take place in the Hungarian city of Szeged on May 14-16. Szeged will also host the finals on November 3-17.
Szeged Mayor László Solymos noted that last year's festival had drawn 6,000 locals to performances.
The productions in the finals:
Knut Vaage: Veslefrikk (Den Nye Opera)
Performances: November 3, 4
Marco Tutino: The servant (Josef Kajetán Tyl Theatre)
Performances: November 6, 7
Giuseppe Verdi: La Traviata (Opera Krakowska)
Performances: November 9, 10
Thomas Pasatieri: The Seagull (Dicapo Opera Theatre)
Performances: November 12, 13
Sergei Prokofiev: The Fiery Angel (Csokonai Theatre)
Performances: November 15, 16
Performances: November 15, 16
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
