The soprano Julia Novikova won first prize in the women's category and the tenor Aleksey Kudriya won in the men's category.
Eighteen finalists, including five in the zarzuela category, competed at the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest for the top prizes. In the opera category, the second prize in the women's category went to the American soprano Angel Blue and the second prize in the men's category was shared by the American bass Jordan Bisch and the Greek tenor Dimitrios Flemotomos, who was also awarded a special prize from the competition's main sponsor. The third prize in the women's category was shared by the sopranos Auxiliadora Toledano from Spain and Anita Watson from Australia. The third prize in the men's category went to Chinese bass Wenwei Zhang.
The zarzuela prize went to Angel Blue and Dimitrios Flemotomos. A special prize in zarzuela was granted to Arnold Rutkowski from Poland.
The Hungarian State Opera granted a special prize to Kudriya and invited him to sing a major role in a future production in Budapest. Toledano was presented a special prize from the city of Budapest and will be a guest at next year's Budapest Spring Festival.
The special prize of the city of Pécs was granted to Lithuanian bass-tenor Kostas Smorigingas.
Domingo and the contest winners will perform at a concert, free of charge to the public, on Dóm Square in the Hungarian city of Pécs on August 8. The contest's youngest competitor, the 21-year-old Hungarian Brigitta Simon, will also sing at the event.
Operalia was a major event in the run-up to Pécs's European Capital of Culture programme in 2010.
Photo: Operalia
