OPERA BIRMINGHAM
VOCAL COMPETITION 2023
FINALS CONCERT & AWARDS DINNER
Sunday, March 12, 2023, 4:00 p.m.
Finals Concert
Cocktails
Seating for the Awards Dinner
| Welcome & Introduction of the Judges | Dr. Andrew Duxbury, President | |
| Announcement of the Winners | Keith A. Wolfe-Hughes, General Director |
1st Prize - $3,500
The Martha Dick McClung Award
given by Nanci Chazen
-with-
an invitation to return for a role in a future production
2nd Prize - $2,500
given by Michael J. & Mary Anne Freeman
3rd Prize - $2,000
given by Martha Pezrow
4th Prize - $1,500
5th Prize - $1,000
given by Tonie Bone
In Honor of Gene Bone
Dinner is Served
|
Announcement |
Keith A. Wolfe-Hughes, General Director |
The Audience Favorite Award - $1,000
Goodbye Until Next Year
Please silence your cell phones.
The artist will choose their first selection. The judges will confer and then choose the second selection.
Avery Boettcher, soprano
Mi tradi qull’alma ingrata, Don Giovanni (Mozart)
Stridono lassú, Pagliacci (Leoncavallo)
Si, mi chiamano Mimi, La Boheme (Puccini)
Ain’t It a Pretty Night, Susannah (Floyd)
Poison Aria, Romeo and Juliet (Gounod)
Susanne Burgess, soprano
Jewel Song, Faust (Gounod)
Song to the Moon, Rusalka (Dvorak)
Al dolce guidami, Anna Bolena (Donizetti)
Je suis encor, Manon (Massenet)
Embroidery Aria, Peter Grimes (Britten)
Bridget Cappel, mezzo-soprano
Una voce poco fa, The Barber of Seville (Rossini)
Parto, parto, La Clemenza di Tito (Mozart)
Am I In Your Light?, Doctor Atomic (Adams)
Va! Laisse couler mes larmes, Werther (Massenet)
Wie du warts, Der Rosenkavalier (Strauss)
Magdalena Kuzma, soprano
Ha! Dzieciatko nam umiera, Halka (Moniuszko)
Iolanta’s Aria, Iolanta (Tchaikovsky)
Adieu, notre petite table, Manon (Massenet)
Deh vieni non tardar, The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart)
Silver Aria, The Ballad of Baby Doe (Moore)
Aubrey Odle, mezzo-soprano
Acerba volutta, Adriana Lecouvreur (Cilea)
Ces lettres, Werther (Massenet)
Sein wir wieder gut, Ariadne auf Naxos (Strauss)
Things change, Jo, Little Women (Adamo)
Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix, Samson and Dalila (Saint-Saens)
Marquita Richardson, soprano
Chi il bel sogno di Doretta, La Rondine (Puccini)
Song to the Moon, Rusalka (Dvorák)
Ach, ich fühl's, The Magic Flute (Mozart)
My Man's Gone Now, Porgy and Bess (Gershwin)
Je veux vivre, Romeo and Juliet (Gounod)
Nathan Synder, tenor
Dein ist mein ganzes Herz, The Land of Smiles (Lehar)
Lift Off Into the Heavens With Me, Staggerwing (DeSpain)
No puede ser, La Tabernera del Puerto (Sorozábal)
Torna ai felici di, Le Villi (Puccini)
Pourquoi me reveiller, Werther (Massenet)
Nathaniel Sullivan, baritone
Tu sei il cor di questo core, Giulio Cesare (Handel)
Papageno's Suicide, The Magic Flute (Mozart)
J'ai pu frapper...Être ou ne pas être, Hamlet (Thomas)
Within this frail crucible of light, The Rape of Lucretia (Britten)
Our very own home, Fellow Travelers (Spears)
Paulina Swierczek, soprano
Do not utter a word, Vanessa (Barber)
D'Oreste, d'Ajace, Idomeneo (Mozart)
Ernani, involami, Ernani (Verdi)
Dich, teure Halle, Tannhauser (Wagner)
Embroidery aria, Peter Grimes (Britten)
Artega Wright, bass-baritone
Nat Turner’s Declaration, Vanqui (Burrs)
Nulla! Silenzio, Il Tabarro (Puccini)
I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’, Porgy and Bess (Gershwin)
O du mein holder Abendstern, Tannhäuser (Wagner)
Carlos, écoute…Ah, je meurs, Don Carlos (Verdi)
The Southern Regional Opera
W. Cassell Stewart Vocal Competition
Written in May 2018
By Jerry Levin
Former Vice-President of Southern Regional Opera
Former Chairman of Opera Birmingham
Ah yes, I remember it well: Birmingham’s first operatic vocal competition. How could I not? I was its first Master of Ceremonies, and two weeks earlier my wife, Sis, and I became engaged. Now we and the Vocal Competition are celebrating fortieth anniversaries. But somewhere along the way its origins and original title, the Southern Regional Opera W. Cassell Stewart Vocal Competition, have gotten lost along a merger path that joined young financially struggling SRO with the descendant of decades old but equally struggling Birmingham Civic Opera.
It began this way. Early in 1978, SRO founder-President Cassell Stewart urgently asked me to brainstorm a “something different for Birmingham” fundraising idea that would promote SRO’s mission of encouraging young singers and mounting operas in English. Anxiously pondering the problem, I experienced the “ah ha” notion that Birmingham should become the site of an annual operatic vocal competition and that it deservedly should be named in honor of Cassell. Putting his personal funds where his passion for opera lay, he had already founded and backed Augusta, Georgia’s opera company and been a past President of Birmingham Civic Opera.
Immediately taking the ball, Cassell ran it elegantly over the goal line on a beautiful May evening in the glamorous setting of local attorney Jack and Diane Hall’s Red Mountaintop Valhalla. Since then the now nationally appreciated event has outgrown several venues and the original prize structure. The first winner took home $500.
The Birmingham News’ Peggy Treschsel commenting said, “It was a very good party and that’s rarer than you think.”
