Figaro! Figaro!: PLÁCIDO DOMINGO’S OPERALIA, THE WORLD OPERA COMPETITION 2012

PLÁCIDO DOMINGO’S OPERATHE WORLD OPERA COMPETITI2012 – BEIJING, CHINA

National Centre for the Performing Arts, NCPA

Monday, June 4th to Sunday, June 10th, 2012

20th EDITION

An anniversary that cannot be missed!

OPERALIA 2012 – SELECTED PARTICIPANTS

To celebrate its milestone Twentieth Edition, Plácido Domingo’s Operalia will travel to the People’s Republic of China to celebrate and to honor the best young and upcoming operatic voices of today. On this occasion, the competition will be hosted by Beijing’s magnificent National Center for the Performing Arts, NCPA.

The NCPA, locally described as The Bird’s Egg, certainly one of the world’s most stunningly beautiful venues designed by the French architect Paul Andreu, has become since its opening in December 2007, China’s top performing arts scene, not only because of its three magnificent halls dedicated to top first Class Opera, Classical Music and Theatre respectively, but because of its commanding arts education and community outreach programs. The construction of NCPA is a major achievement of the reform and China’s openness. Paul Andreu countered that although there is indeed value in ancient traditional Chinese architecture, Beijing must also include modern architecture, as the capital of the country and an international city of great importance.

In previous years, PLACIDO DOMINGO’S OPERALIA has taken place in the following

venues:

• 1993, Paris (Palais Garnier)

• 1994, Mexico City (Televisa Recording Studios)

• 1995, Madrid (Teatro de la Zarzuela)

• 1996, Bordeaux (Grand Théâtre)

• 1997, Tokyo (Yuport Kan-I Hoken Hall)

• 1998, Hamburg (Musikhalle)

• 1999, Puerto Rico (Centro de Bellas Artes, Luis A. Ferré)

• 2000, Los Angeles (Royce Hall, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA))

• 2001, Washington, D.C. (Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University)

• 2002, Paris (Théâtre du Châtelet)

• 2003, Lake Constance Region (Austria, Germany and Switzerland)

• 2004, Los Angeles (Dorothy Chandler Pavillion)

• 2005, Madrid (Teatro Real)

• 2006, Valencia (Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía)

• 2007, Paris (Théâtre du Châtelet)

• 2008, Québec (Palais Montcalm, Grand Théâtre de Québec)

• 2009, Pécs and Budapest (Pécs National Theatre, Hungarian State Opera)

• 2010, Milan (Teatro alla Scala)

• 2011, Moscow (Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater)

OPERALIA 2012 – SELECTED PARTICIPANTS

Maria Aleida, soprano, Cuba/Spain, 29

Amartuvshin, baritone, Mongolia, 26

Hovhannes Ayvazyan, tenor, Armenia, 29

Igor Bakan, bass-baritone, Lithuania, 27

Janai Brugger, soprano, USA, 29

Roman Burdenko, baritone, Russia, 28

Thorsten Büttner, tenor, Germany, 32

Bahadir Noyan Coşgun, baritone, Turkey, 31

Anthony Roth Costanzo, countertenor, USA, 30

Sofia Fomina, soprano, Russia, 29

Aldo Heo, baritone, South Korea, 32

Brian Jagde, tenor, USA, 32

Sharleen Joynt, soprano, Canada, 27

Kartal Karagedik, baritone, Turkey, 27

Nadezhda Karyazina, mezzo-soprano, Russia, 25

Hyojong Kim, tenor, South Korea, 29

Alejandro Lárraga Schleske, baritone, Mexico, 27

Belén López León, soprano, Spain, 32

Joanna McIntire Paris, soprano, USA/Italy, 30

Dmitry Orlov, bass-baritone, Russia, 28

Cristina Pasaroiu, soprano, Romania, 25

Olesya Petrova, mezzo-soprano, Russia, 29

Antonio Poli, tenor, Italy, 26

Lee Poulis, baritone, USA, 32

Bénédicte Roussenq, soprano, France, 30

Alessandro Scotto di Luzio, tenor, Italy, 25

Faith Sherman mezzo-soprano, USA, 30

Victoria Shevtsova, soprano, Russia, 29

Shi Shuang, bass, China, 30

Jelena Štefanić, soprano, Croatia, 29

Bogdan Talos, bass, Romania, 30

Cassandra Zoé Velasco, mezzo-soprano, Mexico/USA, 23

Justine Viani, soprano, Australia/UK, 30

Xin Wang, tenor, China, 33

Xu Lei, soprano, China, 29

Yunpeng Wang, baritone, China, 24

Like Xing, tenor, China, 28

Jegyung Yang, soprano, South Korea, 27

Guanqun Yu, soprano, China, 29

Jing Zheng, soprano, China, 28

To celebrate its milestone Twentieth Edition, Plácido Domingo’s Operalia will travel to the People’s Republic of China to celebrate and to honor the best young and upcoming operatic voices of today. On this occasion, the competition will be hosted by Beijing’s magnificent National Center for the Performing Arts, NCPA.

The NCPA, locally described as The Bird’s Egg, certainly one of the world’s most stunningly beautiful venues designed by the French architect Paul Andreu, has become since its opening in December 2007, China’s top performing arts scene, not only because of its three magnificent halls dedicated to top first Class Opera, Classical Music and Theatre respectively, but because of its commanding arts education and community outreach programs. The construction of NCPA is a major achievement of the reform and China’s openness. Paul Andreu countered that although there is indeed value in ancient traditional Chinese architecture, Beijing must also include modern architecture, as the capital of the country and an international city of great importance.

As every year since it’s inception in 1993, and to continue a decade long partnership with Rolex, Plácido Domingo’s Operalia, the World Opera Competition was created to discover and honour the best new, young opera singers of today and tomorrow. Plácido Domingo’s goal is to attract singers from around the world and have them audition and compete before a most distinguished panel of judges conformed by established international opera impresarios. Forty young international competitors of all voice ranges will be flown to Beijing in June for the preliminary rounds; twenty of the singers will continue on to the semi-finals and thereafter, only ten singers will reach the Final Round which will be presented as a Gala Concert at NCPA’s grand Opera Hall to be conducted by Maestro Plácido Domingo himself. Above and beyond the biggest money prize ever awarded to a finalist in any voice competition, it is Plácido Domingo’s firm commitment to build and support the career of any and all worthy contestants through his

own personal guidance, consideration and recommendation. The Competition is now open to singers of all voice types, between the ages of 18 and 32 years old and who are ready to make the big leap and perform on the world’s great opera stages. Participating in Plácido Domingo’s Operalia is not only a very prestigious and competitive venture but it can be a real stepping-stone to a career. Previous winners include many current stars lighting up Opera stages around the world: Ainhoa Arteta, Joseph Calleja, José Cura, Joyce DiDonato, Giuseppe Filianoti, Elizabeth Futral, Joseph Kaiser, Inva Mula, Eric Owens,

Erwin Schrott, Nina Stemme, Ludovic Tézier, Rolando Villazon, Sonya Yoncheva, as well as the renown Chinese soprano He Hui, among many others.

This year’s Prizes will include:

• Two First Prizes* US$30,000

• Two Second Prizes* US$20,000

• Two Third Prizes* US$10,000

• Two Birgit Nilsson Prizes (Wagner-Strauss repertoire)* US$15,000

• The Pepita Embil Domingo Zarzuela Prize US$10,000

• The Don Plácido Domingo, Sr., Zarzuela Prize US$10,000

• Two Audience Prizes* Watches offered by Rolex

• The Culturarte Prize US$10,000

• Ex aequo prizes

* One each for the best female and best male singer.

In previous years, PLACIDO DOMINGO’S OPERALIA has taken place in the following

venues: