On Feb. 16 Opera Magazine announced the first annual International Opera Awards nominations.
The magazine stated that they hoped the awards would bring recognition to opera at a time when the art form was suffering from budget cuts and attempting to raise appreciation.
John Allision, editor of the Magazine stated "Opera houses all over the world are in a lot of difficulty at the moment as everything is being cut and everyone is feeling the pinch. Some smaller houses in the United States have closed." He added that "Opera houses work very hard and artists put their life and soul into their work but there are a lot of good performances that come and go and are not recognized. Hopefully these awards will raise opera in everyone's conscience."
He also stated, "Everyone has awards - films, books, music - but there just has not been a set of international awards for opera. We want to change that."
The nominees for Best Male singer are tenors Jonas Kaufmann, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Piotr Beczala and Joseph Calleja. Bass Baritones, Luca Pisaroni and Bryn Terfel rounded out the list.
The Female Singer nominees are Sarah Connelly, Joyce Didonato, Evelyn Herlitzius, Catherine Naglestad, Nina Stemme, and Beatrice Uria Monzon.
Antonio Pappano, Richard Farnes and Christian Thiemann were nominated for Best Conductor alongside Ingo Metzmacher and Nicola Luisotti.
The Opera Houses competing for Best Company are the Frankfurt Opera, Opera National de Lyon, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Stanislavsky Music Theatre Moscow and Theater an der Wien.
The Young Singer awards will have Sophie Bevan, Andrei Bondarenko, Allan Clayton, Julia Lezhneva, Duncan Rock and Tamara Wilson competing for the prize.
Allison stated that 1,500 nominations were received from 41 countries with the judging panel made up of 10 opera experts from critics to opera house chiefs.
The awards will be held on April 22 at the Hilton Park Lane.
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