Canadian Takes Opera Prize

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Canadian Takes Opera Prize

Music * Isabel Bayrakdarian, a young soprano with a

degree in biomedical engineering, wins first place in Placido

Domingo's Operalia 2000 contest.

 

By JOHN HENKEN, Special to The Times

 

 

A 26-year-old soprano from Canada took the top prize at

Operalia 2000 on Tuesday evening at UCLA's Royce Hall.

Isabel Bayrakdarian emerged from an astonishingly strong

field of 41 singers, ages 19 to 30, in sole possession of first

place and its $50,000 award in the world opera competition

organized by Placido Domingo.

Second place in the contest was shared by 28-year-old

Chinese soprano He Hui and 23-year-old Russian tenor Daniil

Shtoda. Each takes home $25,000. The third prize was also a

tie, with $15,000 going to 29-year-old Ukrainian tenor

Konstyantyn Andreyev and to Canadian bass Robert

Pomokov, at 19 the youngest entrant.

The eighth annual running of Operalia was held in Los

Angeles to coincide with Domingo's first season as artistic

director of Los Angeles Opera, which opened Wednesday

night at the Performing Arts Center. The competition is

underwritten by Alberto Vilar, the billionaire opera patron

who has recently joined the Los Angeles Opera board, and

the prizes are named for him.

"Amazing," Bayrakdarian said backstage. "I'm very

surprised. I have never seen this high a level in any

competition; each one of us had a chance to win. I'm an

engineer, so I'll be very logical about how I spend the

money--except on shoes!"

Born in Lebanon, raised in Toronto and holding a

degree in biomedical engineering, Bayrakdarian is also a

winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Award.

She has already performed with the Canada Opera Company

and Lyric Opera of Chicago, and she has forthcoming

engagements in Europe at the Opera de Montepellier and

the Aix-en-Provence Festival. A supremely elegant singer

with lyric agility and dramatic warmth, Bayrakdarian sang

the bel canto showpiece "Bel raggio lusinghier" from

Rossini's "Semiramide," with Domingo conducting the Los

Angeles Chamber Orchestra, as he did for all 14 finalists.

* * *

Bayrakdarian also shared in a five-way tie for zarzuela

singing, with each winner awarded $5,000. Zarzuela is the

Spanish national form of musical theater; Domingo's parents

ran a zarzuela company, and he has made the form its own

category at his competition from the outset. The other

four zarzuela winners are 26-year-old Armenian baritone

Arnold Kocharyan, 24-year-old Argentine soprano Virginia

Tola, 28-year-old Russian baritone Andrei Breous and

Ukrainian tenor Andreyev.

There was also a "People's Choice" award, voted on by

the audience at Royce Hall and listeners to the live radio

broadcast on KMZT-FM, who voted via e-mail on the

Operalia Web site. That $10,000 prize went to Tola, as did

an additional Operalia 2000 prize of $10,000, awarded by

local opera patron Lloyd Rigler to the singer of his choice.

Each of the 14 finalists not receiving one of the other

awards, including Americans baritone Kyle Ketelsen and L.A.

Opera resident-artist tenor Bruce Sledge, takes home a

$5,000 award just for making it into the finals.

All of the 41 contestants arrived in Los Angeles with

their expenses paid. They each prepared four arias for the

competition. During the preliminary rounds Thursday and

Friday, each singer began with an aria of his or her choice,

followed by one the 11-member jury requested. At the

semifinal round, Sunday, the panel asked the singers for

one of the other two arias. For the final round, the

repertory was chosen in consultation with Domingo, to

avoid duplication and ensure that music was available for

the rehearsal with the orchestra.

* * *

The judging was done on a point system, with Domingo

working as a sort of moderator. "We try to do it all on a

numerical basis to keep it objective, but there is some

subjective discussion in the case of ties and other factors,"

said one of the judges, Edward Purrington, artistic

administrator for Washington Opera, where Domingo is also

artistic director.

The process seems to favor consistency and to

eliminate extremes of voice type, production and

interpretation, although Purrington demurred on this issue,

pointing out that there were still some unique voices in the

finals. The judges considered the singers' performances in

the preliminaries while evaluating the semifinal round, and

Domingo said that the 14 who passed to the finals were the

same 14 who topped the preliminary scoring.

The other judges, in addition to Purrington, were

Jean-Pierre Brossman, general director of the Thea^tre du

Cha^telet in Paris; Juan Cambreleng Roca, general director

of the Teatro Real in Madrid; Thierry Fouquet, general

director of the Grand Thea^tre in Bordeaux; stage director

Michael Hampe, administrator of the Dresden Music

Festival; American diva Marilyn Horne; Peter Katona, artistic

administrator of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden;

Gerardo Kleinburg, general director of the National Opera

Company in Mexico; Canadian writer Harvey Sachs; Helga

Schmidt, director of the new Palacio de las Artes in

Valencia, Spain; and Eva Wagner Pasquier, artistic

consultant to the Metropolitan Opera and the

Aix-en-Provence Festival.

Representatives of other opera companies and

management agents were in the audience for the early

rounds as well. With this concentration of talent and

administrators, the competition between rounds also had

all the makings of a job fair, with deal-making and

discussions going on backstage, including some between

contestants and members of the jury.

"It should not have any effect on either the singers or

the judges," said Purrington, who was himself discussing

availability with two of the artists. Given the level of the

singers and the number of companies represented, it is

probably not surprising that there are already connections

between many contestants and judges. "I don't believe

there is any conflict, any impact on the judging," said

Purrington.

L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan made an appearance at the

end of the competition to proclaim Tuesday Placido

Domingo/Operalia 2000 Day. Operalia, UCLA and the city's

Department of Cultural Affairs, which gave $50,000 to the

competition this year, all have expressed interest in making

a permanent home for the event in Los Angeles.

American baritone Rodney Gilfry, who will star in Los

Angeles Opera's production of "La Cenerentola," opening

Friday at the Music Center, was the amiable master of

ceremonies, going so far as to tell stories of his own

competition days and to croon "Besame Mucho,"

unaccompanied, while filling time waiting for the award

announcements. At the end, all the contestants joined

Domingo and the audience in singing the chorus "Va,

pensiero" from Verdi's "Nabucco." A concert featuring all

the competition winners with Domingo is scheduled for

Dec. 15, in Royce Hall.