UDINE The ‘Gala Grandi Voci del Futuro’ which will be staged on Friday 7 June at 8.30 pm at Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udineat the end of the fifth edition of the 1st Virtual Opera Singing Competition SOI Scuola dell’Opera Italiana Fiorenza Cedolins’.
The six winning artists will take part in the concert from a shortlist of twelve finalists identified both by the Online International Grand Jury, which includes one hundred personalities – from music critics to prominent singers – active in the opera field, and by the Presential Jury to further guarantee careful attention selection. The singers will be accompanied by the FVG Orchestra directed by Maestro Giuliano Carella in an exciting program packaged with pages by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, Lehár, Offenbach, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.
During the evening the famous baritone Franco Vassallo will receive the ‘SOI Lifetime Achievement Award 3rd edition 2024’ and together with the soprano Fiorenza Cedolins, godmother of the evening, will offer the public some of the most famous romances of the baritone repertoire.
And then, for the first time in the history of the Competition, the special prize in memory of the great Bonaldo Giaiotti will be awarded to the best bass voice. “I’m really happy with how this competition has developed – he declared Fiorenza Cedolins – born on a bet during the pandemic with the aim of spreading opera through social media.
Over the course of five years it has achieved incredible results, both in discovering new talents and in the widespread diffusion of this wonderful artistic expression that is opera singing, an element that distinguishes us in the world and also helps us to appreciate our language and our culture. ”
The artists awarded in past editions are already having a good career, invited by the most prestigious theaters such as La Scala and the Metropolitan but also the Verona Arena, where this summer the Armenian soprano will play Mimì Juliana Grigoryan winner of ‘SOI 2022’.
“I like to highlight that fourteen years after the Bohème that I did together with Marcelo Alvarez with great success – underlined Cedolins – now I will be playing my role in the Arena Juliana Grigoryanalmost a sort of passing of the baton from Mimì to Mimì.”
That the competition is growing is also demonstrated by the prize money up for grabs, which this year is fifty thousand euros between contracts and prizes thanks to the sponsors, as well as the collaboration with the most important Italian theatres, from the Comunale di Bologna and Lirico di Cagliari to the Teatro New Giovanni da Udine this year.
“Lyric singing, now a world heritage site – said the soprano – is among the most identifying of our arts. It is a great tradition that must be defended and supported, in the name of a glorious past that must not be betrayed and a future full of pride.”
Purchase tickets at the Theater box office (Via Trento 4 Udine) and on vivaticket.it
