Timpani roll... gong... You've cast your verdict in the Bachtrack Opera Awards. The votes have been verified and the final winner has been announced:
Congratulations to Oper Frankfurt which won the Best Overall Opera Performance award for its production of Weinberg's The Passenger.
The vote for Best Written Review (English) went to Charlotte Valori for her review of English Touring Opera’s La bohème, which opened at the Hackney Empire.
The vote for Best Production Photo saw six of opera's top photographers go head-to-head. The winner was Clive Barda for his recent photo for Welsh National Opera of Pelléas et Mélisande:
When greeted with the news this afternoon, Clive said: "I'm delighted and honoured to have won this award. I feel I must point out that, in the final analysis, one can only photograph what one sees on the stage. I would like to thank WNO, the two artists involved in the photo and the creative team behind Pelléas and Mélisande for creating such a spectacular and dramatic moment."
The vote for Best Male Singer was our closest yet, with two tenors running neck and neck for most of the week. One multiple votes were removed (we're one vote per person, folks!) the triumphant tenor is: Javier Camarena for his Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola at Bayerische Staatsoper. Our reviewer in Munich wrote: "Camarena’s top notes in “Si, ritrovarla io guiro” were astoundingly powerful and pure – heavy and belted, but almost bell-like in their steadiness and resonance. I’ve never heard a tenor sound quite like that before."
The award for Best Female Singer has generated much voting interest. Aleksandra Kurzak won for her role in Rossini’s Il turco in Italia at the Royal Opera House this spring. In our review, Ms Kurzak was praised for "a voice that is prettily sweet-toned and projects plenty of strength, but what impresses most is how she can shape the decorations: what you hear isn’t a virtuosic shower of notes but a beautifully crafted arabesque – all of it produced while executing a variety of slapstick pratfalls and acting her part with verve."
Best Staging in the 2014/15 season goes to Dresden Semperoper for Axel Köhler's production of Der Freischütz in May.
"We are very happy that readers of bachtrack.com voted for Axel Köhler’s staging of “Der Freischütz” at the Semperoper Dresden as winner of the 'Best Staging' category." - Semperoper Dresden
Read Daniel Url's review here.
Visit this page each week to see the latest winners.
