Nina Stemme and Jonas Kaufmann won the awards for best male singer and best female singer, and the Frankfurt Opera House took the prize for best opera company at the first annual Opera Awards Monday night. The ceremony was held at the Hilton Park Lane in London.
Other winners included Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh†as staged by Dmitry Tcherniakov at the Amsterdam Opera for best production and Puccini’s “Trittico†at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in a staging by Richard Jones conducted by Antonio Pappano for best DVD.
The Opera Awards were instituted this year by Harry Hyman, a business man and opera supporter in Britain, and the British magazine Opera to bring recognition to the world of opera in a broad range of Oscar-like categories. The awards honored achievement during the year 2012 and were determined by a 10-person jury made up of critics and practitioners, following nominations from the readers of Opera magazine and the public at large.
Ms. Stemme won acclaim for her Wagnerian interpretations in Munich, Milan and Paris, while Mr. Kaufmann’s performances included “Carmen†in Salzburg and two bestselling solo discs. The award to the Frankfurt Opera recognized its strong box office sales and its mix of rarities and mainstream repertory.
The award for new opera went to George Benjamin’s “Written on Skin,†which had its premiere at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and has since traveled to major opera houses. Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Baroque masterpiece “David et Jonathas†in performances by Les Arts Florissants, which was also seen in several venues including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, won the award for rediscovered work.
Opera in the United States was recognized by two awards to the Metropolitan Opera, one for accessibility for its streaming of performances to movie theaters and another for best orchestra, which it won despite the absence of the company’s music director, James Levine, for health reasons; he is scheduled to return for a concert with the orchestra on May 19. Cape Town Opera won for best chorus.
Covent Garden’s Antonio Pappano won the award for best conductor. The British soprano Sophie Bevan won the young singer award, and the conductor Daniele Rustioni won for best newcomer (conductor or director).
The award for best festival went to Salzburg, which saw a particularly ambitious first festival under its new artistic director, Alexander Pereira.
In addition to the award won by his production of “The Legendary City of Kitezh,†Mr. Tcherniakov won the award for best director. Likewise, Mr. Kaufmann’s award for best male singer was reinforced by a readers award based on votes by the readers of Opera magazine.
In the CD realm, Decca’s strongly cast recording of Handel’s rarely performed “Alessandro†conducted by George Petrou won for best complete recording, and Christian Gerhaher’s mellifluously sung disc of Romantic arias for Sony won for best operatic recital.
Paul Constable won for lighting designer, Antony McDonald for set designer and Buki Schiff for costume designer.
Peter Moores was honored as philanthropist/sponsor, and a lifetime achievement award went to George Christie, former chairman of Glyndebourne productions.
