A night of nerves and happy coincidences in a hard-fought final of remarkable quality in the large room of the Teatre del Liceu. The Viñas contest, with six decades of history, emblem of the Rambla theater, saw a 24-year-old South Korean singer, Yewon Han, win the absolute prize of the contest just four decades after Sumi Jo did the same in 1983.
The veteran South Korean singer, present in the room, gave herself a demanding recital at the end of the final, her debut at the Liceu! Perhaps a premonition, since Sumi is the most important Korean soprano in the history of opera.
The first prize, endowed with 25,000 euros, exalts the talented Yewon, currently at the Opernhaus of the Zurich Opera, who showed a light lyrical voice of great power, and morbidly filled the great room of the Liceu with the aria from the Fiakermilli from Strauss’s Arabella and the madness scene of Ophélie from Thomas’s Hamlet.
The second prize, of 15,000 euros, went to the 33-year-old Ukrainian Yulia Merkudinova, who displayed musicality and timbre virtuosity with a colorful phrasing with arias from Bellini’s La sonnambula and Don Pasquale’s Norina. The soprano, an emigrant from the Crimea region, dedicated the award to her parents, who still reside there. Merkudinova has not set foot on her land for reasons of war, and she has lived in Italy for five years.
Joy for the Wagnerians, as the third prize went to the 23-year-old German soprano Ann-Kathrin Niemczyk, who also won the Wagner prize of 2,000 euros, too many years deserted. The German she sang a notable ballad of Senta from Wagner’s Fliegende Höllander and the showy Hera!, from Kálmán’s operetta Csárdásfürstin.
Among the rest of the winners, it is worth mentioning the first male voice on the list: the fourth prize, of 8,000 euros, for the 31-year-old American tenor Anthony Ciaramitaro; the fifth prize (7,000), for the 28-year-old Russian soprano Julia Muzychenko. The official prize list was completed by one of the most applauded voices in the final, that of the 28-year-old American soprano Erika Baikoff, sixth prize (6,000), as well as the Oratorio-Lied prize for this young talent who will debut this summer at the Vilabertrán Schubertrán Festival.
Mention to the quality of the Catalan bass Gerard Farreras, the only national representative, awarded 10,000 euros as the best Spanish singer in the final, who next season will enter the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin.
