The 2009 competition seeks to discover not only the best new voice, but a stage presence.
"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," the competition organisers say on their website.
Attila Vidnyánszky, the festival's artistic director and the director of the Csokonai Theatre in Debrecen, welcomed the competition's embrace of theatricality. He added that it was an honour for his theatre to represent Hungary with a premiere at the festival.
In the competition's first round, to take place in New York, Gdansk, Budapest, Paris and Bergen in April, the jury will select the best competitors based exclusively on vocal capabilities and musicality. Each of the five partner opera houses in the competition will select one applicant for each of the roles of the five competing productions in the contest.
The second round will take place in Hungary at the end of May. Here the directors of the productions will select the final cast for all productions.
The finals will take place during a two-week festival on November 3--17. Mezzo Television, with the cooperation of Hungarian Television, will broadcast the performances in 39 countries.At the end of the competition the jury will present the Awards for Best Male Performer and Best Female Performer. The two winners will be commissioned to prepare a solo production, which will be broadcast by Mezzo Television.
The Competition Productions:
Csokonai Theatre (Debrecen, Hungary) - Last Day of a Condemned, by David Alagna; director: Nadine Duffaut
The Baltic Opera (Gdansk, Poland) - Ariadne auf Naxos, by Richard Strauss; director: to be decided
Théâtre Bienne Soleure (Bienne, Switzerland) - L'Heure Espagnole, by Ravel, and Alexandre bis, by Bohuslav Martinu; director: Bertalan Bagó
The National Moravian-Silesian Theatre (Ostrava, Czech Republic) - Life, by Marco Tutino; director Péter Telihay
Dicapo Opera Theatre (New York, USA) - Emmeline, by Tobias Picker; director: Róbert Alföldi
Author: Éva Kelemen
Photo: Opera Competition and Festival on Mezzo Television
