The 2023 Met Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition Winners
Anthony León(from top left), Natalie Lewis, Teresa Perrotta/ Sarah Saturnino(from bottom left), Christian Simmons, Meredith Wohlgemuth
4월 23일 링컨센터에서 열린 메트로폴리탄 오페라의 2023 성악 콩쿠르(2023 Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition) 결선에서 테너 안소니 레온(Anthony León, 캘리포니아), 메조소프라노 나탈리 루이스(Natalie Lewis, 메릴랜드), 소프라노 테레사 페로타(Teresa Perrotta, 플로리다), 메조소프라노 사라 사투니노(Sarah Saturnino, 캘리포니아), 베이스 바리톤 크리스찬 시몬스(Christian Simmons, 워싱턴 DC),와 소프라노 메레디스 월게무스(Meredith Wohlgemuth, 플로리다) 등 6인이 공동으로 우승을 차지했다. 우승자들은 각각 2만 달러의 상금을 받고, 무대에 오를 기회가 주어진다.
이날 메트로폴리탄 오페라 하우스에서 소프라노 라토니아 무어(Latonia Moore)의 사회로 열린 본선에서 각 진출자들은 미셸 감바(Michel Gamba)가 지휘하는 메트 오케스트라의 반주로 2곡의 아리아를 불렀다. 우승하지 못한 본선 진출자 바리톤 엘리오마 쿠엘로(Eleomar Cuello, 쿠바), 테너 유통 한(Yuntong Han, 중국), 테너 사헬 살람(Sahel Salam, 텍사스), 바리톤 데이빗 울프(David Wolfe, 펜실베니아)는 각 1만달러의 상금을 받는다.
이번 시즌 콩쿠르엔 세계에서 1천200여명이 응모해 36개 구역에서 900명이 참가했다. 이중 지역 결선에 참가한 137명 중 20명이 준결선에 올랐으며, 최종 결선에선 10명이 경합했다.
The 2023 Met Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition Winners
-Anthony León, 26, tenor (Western Region; Riverside, California)
-Natalie Lewis, 24, mezzo-soprano (Eastern Region; Severna Park, Maryland)
-Teresa Perrotta, 27, soprano (Great Lakes Region; Orlando, Florida)
-Sarah Saturnino, 29, mezzo-soprano (Western Region; Grass Valley, California)
-Christian Simmons, 28, bass-baritone (Rocky Mountain Region; Washington, D.C.)
-Meredith Wohlgemuth, 27, soprano (Eastern Region; Winter Haven, Florida)
1954년 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions이라는 이름으로 시작된 Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition는 올해로 69회를 맞았다. 메트 콩쿠르를 통해 스타덤에 오른 성악가로는 르네 플레밍(Renée Fleming), 수잔 그레이함(Susan Graham), 에릭 오웬스(Eric Owens), 스테파니 블리스(Stephanie Blythe), 홍혜경(Hei-Kyung Hong), 손드라 라드바노프스키(Sondra Radvanovsky), 리세트 오로페사(Lisette Oropesa), 제이미 바톤(Jamie Barton), 안소니 로스 코스탄조(Anthony Roth Costanzo) 등이 있다. 한인으로는 홍혜경씨 외에도 이성은(Sung Eun Lee, 2009), 임경택(Joseph Lim, 2011), 듀크 김(Duke Kim, 2021)과 김효영(Hyoyoung Kim, 2021) 등이 우승을 차지한 바 있다.
Biographies of the 2023 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition Winners
Tenor Anthony León has appeared at the Santa Fe Opera, Carnegie Hall, Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Geneva’s Victoria Hall, and Metz’s Arsenal Concert Hall, among others. During the 2022–23 season, he is a member of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program at LA Opera, where he has sung Roderigo in Verdi’s Otello, Don Curzio in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, the Male Chorus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Spoletta in Puccini’s Tosca, and Normanno in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. He is scheduled to appear at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg Festival, sing Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at LA Opera, and can be heard on a recording of Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria with the ensemble I Gemelli. Last year, he earned first prize and the Don Plácido Domingo Ferrer Zarzuela Prize at the Operalia competition.
In recent seasons, mezzo-soprano Natalie Lewis has appeared as the Third Lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Marcellina in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, and Mistress Quickly in Verdi’s Falstaff. She has participated in numerous summer young artist programs, including at the Aspen Music Festival, Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artists’ Vocal Academy, Opera Neo, and American Institute for Music Studies in Graz, Austria. She placed first in Houston Grand Opera’s Concert of Arias in 2023, as well as in the New England Region NATS competition. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is currently finishing her master’s degree at the Juilliard School, where she is a Kovner Fellow. Upcoming performances include Zita in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and the Princess in Puccini’s Suor Angelica at Juilliard Opera, Lucretia in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia with San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program, and her debut at Carnegie Hall with the Cecilia Chorus of New York. During the 2023–24 season, she will join the opera studio at the Bavarian State Opera, under scholarship with the Opera Foundation.
During the 2022–23 season, soprano Teresa Perrotta joined Washington National Opera’s Cafritz Young Artist Program, singing the Fifth Maid in Strauss’s Elektra and Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème. Additional debuts include Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff at Maryland Lyric Opera and Anna in Verdi’s Nabucco with Washington Concert Opera. This summer, she will return to the Glimmerglass Festival as Mimì in La Bohème. Upcoming engagements also include debuts with Berkshire Opera Festival and the Erie Philharmonic and a return to the Santa Fe Opera, where she previously appeared as Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Alice Ford. She made her international debut as Marie Antoinette in John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles at the Royal Opera of Versailles in 2019, and she has participated in workshops for Gregory Spears’s The Righteous, Kevin Puts’s The Hours, and Tobias Picker’s Awakenings. She has been a young artist at the Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Chautauqua Opera, and Ohio Light Opera. She received her undergraduate degree from the Eastman School of Music and her master’s degree and artist diploma from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Mezzo-soprano Sarah Saturnino is in her first season in LA Opera’s Domingo-Colbert-Stein Young Artist Program. At LA Opera, she has sung Lucretia in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Jocabed in Henry Mollicone’s Moses, and Emilia in Verdi’s Otello. She is a former young artist at the Santa Fe Opera, where she covered the title role of Carmen, Meg Page in Verdi’s Falstaff, Marcellina in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, and Hippolyta in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She is also a former resident artist at Shreveport Opera, where she sang Carmen in The Tragedy of Carmen, Marcellina, Maddalena and Giovanna in Verdi’s Rigoletto, and Julia Child in Lee Hoiby’s Bon Appétit. She has also sung Vera Boronel in Menotti’s The Consul with Baltimore Concert Opera and Maddalena at Painted Sky Opera, Opera San Antonio, and Amarillo Opera. She is an alumna of the Chautauqua Institution and recently made her debut with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra as the Alto Soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and performed in Dayton Opera’s Maria Callas Centennial Celebration Concert. She holds a master’s degree from Yale University and a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Los Angeles.
Bass-baritone Christian Simmons is currently a Cafritz Young Artist at Washington National Opera, where this season he covers Ferrando in Verdi’s Il Trovatore and Colline in Puccini’s La Bohème and appears as the Policeman in Jeanine Tesori’s Blue, Colline in the young-artist performance of La Bohème, and in the American Opera Initiative. Last season, he made his debut with Washington National Opera as Zuniga in the young-artist performance of Bizet’s Carmen. He has also been a featured soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the National Symphony Orchestra and performed in Zaid Jabri’s Southern Crossings at Barnard College and as Colline at Annapolis Opera Company. He has appeared at the Morgan State University Theater, Bel Cantanti Opera Company, Washington Opera Society, Castleton Music Festival, Amalfi Coast Music Festival, Berlin Opera Academy, Bare Opera Company, and Maryland Opera Studio, and his roles have included Figaro in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, the King in Verdi’s Aida, Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Seneca in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea, the Duke of Verona in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Nardo in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera, and Jabez Stone in Moore’s The Devil and Daniel Webster.
Soprano Meredith Wohlgemuth recently completed her master’s degree the Juilliard School and sang in the U.S. premiere of George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence as part of Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary Music last August. During the 2021–22 season, she made her debut at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, performing in Beth Morrison Projects’s 21c Liederabend Op. Senses. Recently, she also made her debut at Carnegie Hall as a Renée Fleming SongStudio Young Artist and performed at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts and at New York’s Merkin Hall as a Schwab Vocal Rising Star with New York Festival of Song. This year, she will make her Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium debut with the Cecilia Chorus of New York and will be a Renée Fleming Artist at the Aspen Music Festival, where she will sing Ilia in Mozart’s Idomeneo. Next season, she will join the ensemble at Staatsoper Hannover.
가수, 배우, 인권운동가 해리 벨라폰테(Harry Belafonte, 96) 별세
