Seattle Opera announces Wagner competition winners

South African soprano Elza van den Heever and Swedish tenor Michael Weinius received the top prize of $15,000 (£7,500) each, with German mezzo-soprano Nadine Weissmann voted orchestra favourite. Van der Heever was also named as the audience favourite.

The winners were selected from a shortlist of eight finalists by a panel of six judges. Each finalist performed two Wagner arias, accompanied by members of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and conductor Asher Fisch.

'All judges agreed that we had eight fine finalists,' said Speight Jenkins, SO's general director. 'I feel that the level was higher this year than the first year. It was a hard-fought decision for the two winners, but a great one.'

Performances by each of the finalists - who were selected last autumn by Jenkins and Fisch based on auditions in Munich, London, New York and Seattle - will be broadcast on 98.1 Classical KING FM at 7.00pm PST on 23 August. The station can be streamed from its website.

Contestants in the 'semi-annual' competition must be aged between 25 and 40 and must not have sung more than one major Wagner role in an opera house. Irish soprano Miriam Murphy and English baritone James Rutherford were victorious in the first International Wagner Competition, which took place in 2006.

www.seattleopera.org

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