Photo by Cara Owsley
Important as Operalia is to hear young talent, the 2014 edition Saturday night from Los Angeles was handicapped by what may be called — to be kind — production problems. The long wait after performances yielded to more than an hour of awkward speech-making, extravagant non-stop hype for Plácido Domingo (who is credited for creating and maintaining the event), and, worst of all, Domingo's snail-paced conducting, handicapping all singers.
During the program, signs identifying singers and selections flashed on and off too quickly to read, so here's the information you might have missed. Kudos to Rolex for sponsoring the event and the free Medici.tv streaming (and the Rolex official who pointed to his watch to remind Domingo that it has turned after 1 a.m. on the East Coast. The webcast remains on Medici.tv.
The results:
Female:
1st Prize – Rachel Willis-Sørensen, soprano
2nd Prize – Amanda Woodbury, soprano (Merola, 2014)
3rd Prize (tie) – Anaïs Constans, soprano and Mariangela Sicilia, soprano
Male:
1st Prize – Mario Chang, tenor
2nd Prize – Joshua Guerrero, tenor
3rd Prize (tie) – John Holiday, countertenor and Andrey Nemzer, countertenor
Audience prizes:
Amanda Woodbury, soprano
Mario Chang, tenor
Zarzuela prizes:
Mario Chang, tenor
Rachel Willis-Sørensen, soprano
Birgit Nilsson Prize:
Rachel Willis-Sørensen, soprano
The CulturArte de Puerto Rico Prize:
Joshua Guerrero, tenor