A scene from Warlikowski's "Lulu", photo: Bernd Uhlig / La Monnaie
The International Opera Awards, adding further energy to the field by recognising achievement in a broad range of Oscar-like categories, are presented for the first time in 2013
The annual Operas, as they are unofficially called by audiences, are global in scope and awarded in 21 categories, offering a unique chance to compare achievements in opera. The finalists for these inaugural awards are presented in London on the 22nd of April 2013.
Krzysztof Warlikowski is nominated in the Best Production category for his staging of Lulu at Brussels’ La Monnaie, Piotr Beczała is listed in the Best Male Singer category, and Mariusz Kwiecień gets his nod in the Opera Award’s CD Operatic Recital category for the Slavic Heroes album recorded with the HM label.
Warlikowski is known for directing contemporary montages in works of classic opera. Following its Belgian premiere last year, the director's Lulu was assessed by Le Soir to be somewhere betweeen Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, between a "naturalism condemned to nihilism, and life that triumphs through the unleashed instincts".
Singers Piotr Beczała and Mariusz Kwiecień are among the world's principal vocalists, performing at the top operas around the world. Beczała recently gave a smashing performance at the Met in Michael Mayer's Rigoletto and is currently performing the title role in Gounod’s Faust (through the 5th of April). New York Times' reviewer Steve Smith wrote of Beczała's performance in the production, which takes the devilish tale into contemporary realities of nuclear threat, that he "delivered what was required of him ardently, with ringing top notes and fluid phrasing in Gounod’s essentially perfect cavatina, 'Salut! demeure chaste et pure'".
Kwiecień, recognised around the world for his lead role in King Roger, the opera by Karol Szymanowski - including the recent production directed by Michał Znanecki and Santa Fe Opera's acclaimed 2012 production - received Spain's prestigious Premios Líricos Teatro Campoamor as Best Opera Singer last year. He will reprise his title role in the critically acclaimed production of Eugene Onegin, directed by Deborah Warner and conducted by Valery Gergiev in September 2013, to open the Met's 2013/2014 season. He will be joined onstage by Beczała, performing the role of Lenski, Onegin's friend-turned-rival.
The goal of the International Opera Awards is to bolster the fortunes of an art form that has historically been reluctant to promote itself vigorously. Raising awareness about excellence in the field aims to excite existing audiences and help build new ones, while simultaneously giving promising careers a boost. Although the awards are not the first to recognize achievements in opera - Opera News, a publication of the Metropolitan Opera Guild, confers awards to several individuals annually - the Operas are the first to have such broad scope.
The new awards have been initiated by Harry Hyman, an opera supporter in Britain who is managing director of Nexus Group, in conjunction with the British magazine Opera. The magazine encouraged its international network of contributors and its readership to submit nominees, but anyone was free to do so. The results formed the basis for selection at the discretion of a 10-member jury.
The patrons of the award are Plácido Domingo and Mirella Freni.
Author: Paulina Schlosser
Source: www.operaawards.org, www.nytimes.com
02.04.2013
Piotr Beczala as the title role of Gounod's "Faust" (rehearsal 18.03.2013). Photo: Cory Weaver/Metropolitan Opera