SEATTLE OPERA PRESENTS: International Wagner Competition
A Special One-Night Only Event Returns at McCaw Hall
Thu, Aug 7, 2014 7:00 PM
The world will be watching as an elite group of up-and-coming Wagnerians take the stage for our third International Wagner Competition. Accompanied by full orchestra, each finalist will perform two selections from the Wagner canon. In addition to awards for orchestra and audience favorites, finalists will compete for a total of $50,000 in cash prizes, awarded by a distinguished panel of judges.
Seating is limited to Orchestra and Dress Circle levels for this exciting one-night-only event.
Performance at: McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer Street, Seattle, WA 98109
Finalists
Helena Dix
Soprano
Australian-born Helena Dix recently won the Wagner Society’s 2012 Bursary Competition and has since performed in the 2012 Bayreuth Stipendiatenkonzert at the Festspielhaus and in Karlsruhe as part of the International Wagner prize. In 2005, Dix represented Australia in the 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. Her operatic repertoire includes Elettra in Idomeneo for Theater Lübeck; the title role in La Gioconda in Valladoliad; the Flowermaiden in Parsifal for English National Opera; Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow for Scottish Opera; Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Nella in Gianni Schicchi for The Opera Project; Li-Li in Greed for the Glyndebourne Young Artist Project; and Musetta in La bohème for Opera Novella. Other roles include Felice inSchool for Fathers, Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte, the title role of Thaïs, Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, Elvira in Ernani, Violetta La traviata, and Noémie in Massenet’sCendrillon.
Ric Furman
Tenor
Ric Furman made his Seattle Opera debut as Florestan in Fidelio in 2012. He has performed Tito in La clemenza di Tito at Opera Company of Brooklyn, Don José inCarmen at Springfield Regional Opera, Dancaïre in Carmen at Cincinnati Opera, and Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi at Pittsburgh Opera. For Cincinnati Opera he sang Augustin Moser in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. He has also appeared at Dayton Opera, Dicapo Opera, Indianapolis Opera, and Opera Omaha. Past roles include Rodolfo in La bohème, Alfredo in La traviata, the Duke in Rigoletto, both Roméo and Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette, Detlef in The Student Prince, Beppe in Pagliacci, and roles in Aida, Don Carlo, Ainadamar, Carmen, Salome, Samson et Dalila, Il viaggio a Reims, Le nozze di Figaro, Gianni Schicchi, Der Kaiser von Atlantis, Così fan tutte,The Tender Land, and Die Zauberflöte. He is a former Young Artist with Cincinnati Opera and Opera Omaha.
Suzanne Hendrix
Soprano
Suzanne Hendrix made her Seattle Opera debut as Waltraute in Die Walküre in 2013. Other Wagner roles include Schwertleite in Die Walküre at San Francisco Opera and Mary in Der Fliegende Holländer at Lyric Opera of Kansas City. She recently performed the Fortune Teller in Arabella at Santa Fe Opera, Bianca in The Rape of Lucretia at Opera Memphis, and Azucena in Il trovatore at Wichita Grand Opera. Other roles include Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Ma in The Tender Land, Zita in Gianni Schicchi, the Princess in Suor Angelica, and Florence Pike in Albert Herring. She is a former apprentice artist with Des Moines Metro Opera, Merola Opera Program, and the Santa Fe Opera. She won first prize in the 2012 George London Competition.
Roman Ialcic
Bass
German bass Roman Ialcic covered the roles of Fafner and Hunding for Seattle Opera’s 2013 Der Ring des Nibelungen. His roles include Konchak in Prince Igor, Boris in Boris Godunov, Gremin in Eugene Onegin, and Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra. He also performed Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte at the Open Air Opera Festival in Isny. In 2006, he reached the final round of Plácido Domingo’s Operalia, and since September 2007 has been engaged as a soloist at the St. Gallen Theater, Switzerland, where his roles have included Escamillo in Carmen, Cascada in The Merry Widow, Lamoral in Arabella, Tomski in The Queen of Spades, Talbot in Giovanna d’Arco, Marchese d’Obigny in La traviata, and Kaspar in Der Freischütz.
Kevin Ray
Tenor
As a second year member in the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Kevin Ray’s roles have included Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, the Third SS Officer in Weinberg’s The Passenger, scenes of Captain Ahab in Heggie’s Moby-Dick, Froh and Loge in Das Rheingold, and Don José in Carmen. Last season, he sang his first performances of the title role of Peter Grimes with Chautauqua Opera as well as Don José at the Lyrique-en-Mer/Festival de Belle-Île. His previous roles at Houston Grand Opera include Melot in Tristan und Isolde, the Messenger in Il trovatore, and Parpignol in La bohème. At Santa Fe Opera, he created the role of the Second Clubman in the world premiere of Moravec’s The Letter and has performed the role of the Poet in Menotti’s The Last Savage. He is a former member of the Santa Fe Apprentice Singer Program and the Merola Opera Program of San Francisco Opera.
Tamara Mancini
Soprano
Tamara Mancini made her Seattle Opera debut as Ortlinde in Die Walküre in 2013. A former San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow, she performed in their mainstage productions as Freia in Das Rheingold and Helmwige in Die Walküre. She recently performed the title role in Turandot at Royal Opera Stockholm; Palácio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City; and Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Other roles include Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, Leonora in La forza del destino, Maddalena di Coigny in Andrea Chénier, Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana, and the title role in Tosca, which she performed in her Vancouver Opera debut earlier this season. She has won the Giulio Gari Competition, the Licia Albanese Puccini Competition, and the Opera Index Competition.
Issacha Savage
Tenor
Grand prize winner of the 2012 Marcello Giordani International Competition, Issacha Savage has received awards and career grants from the Wagner Societies of New York, Washington, D.C., and Northern California, and two first place prizes in the Liederkranz Foundation competition. Savage has performed in the world premiere of Wynton Marsalis’s All Rise and Mark Antony in the world premiere of Leslie Savoy Burrs’ Egypt’s Nights at Philadelphia’s Opera North, and he has performed Radames inAida at Opera North Carolina and Houston Grand Opera. He has also participated in the Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera, the Evelyn Lear and Thomas Steward Emerging Singers Program, Dolora Zajick’s Institute for Young Dramatic Voices, and ACMA’s Wagner Theater program, where he performed scenes from Die Walküre,Parsifal, and Samson et Delilah.
Marcy Stonikas
Soprano
During Seattle Opera’s 2012/13 season, Marcy Stonikas debuted the title roles in productions of Turandot and Fidelio, and she returns to Seattle Opera in 2014 to sing Magda Sorel in The Consul. She recently performed Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at Wolf Trap Opera Company, the title role of at Utah Opera, and the title role of at Opera Santa Barbara. Upcoming engagements include Leonora at Volksoper Vienna and a performance in concert with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. A graduate of the Young Artists Program at Seattle Opera, she performed the roles of Donna Anna,Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, and the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos while a member of the program. She is a winner of the 2013 George London Foundation Vocal Competition and First Prize winner in the Wagner Division of the 2013 Gerda Lissner Foundational Vocal Competition.
Opera, My Love Magazine 