International singing contest Francesc Viñas won by soprano Katerina Tretyakova and baritone Michal Jakub Partyka

Barcelona (ACN).- The 50^th anniversary of the prestigious International Singing Contest Francesc Viñas, specialising in opera and oratorio-lied singing,  awarded the joint first prize to the soprano Katerina Tretyakova, from Lithuania, and baritone Michal Jakub Partyka, from Poland. The competition, which is one of the most important in the world in its field, is named after the Catalan tenor Francesc Viñas, who was born 150 years ago and was the first person to think of such a competition to foster new talent. In fact, to coincide with the 150^th anniversary of Viñas birth and the 50^th anniversary of the competition, the Liceu Theater has organised an exhibition and published a book to showcase Francesc Viñas’ career and the history of the competition named after him. As each year, the final stage of the competition took place in Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu with 15 singers taking part. From the 9^th of January, the final few rounds have taken place in Barcelona. The preliminary stages took place all over the world during the past few months, in the cities of Madrid, Paris, London, Hamburg, Milan, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Beijing, where the Liceu Theatre has cooperative agreements with the opera houses. 480 singers from 57 different countries participated. The winners were announced on Friday night and the award ceremony was on Sunday, in which the winners showed the audience their talent accompanied by the Gran Teatre del Liceu Symphony Orchestra. Besides Tretyakova’s and Jakub’s awards, the second prize was for baritone Amartuvshin, from Mongolia, and the third prize went to baritone Valeriu Caradja, from Moldova. The first prize in the junior category – for singers under 26 – was for Marina Nachkebiya, from Georgia. This junior category was introduced this year.

Known at an international level as the ‘Francisco Viñas’ International Singing Contest, this competition aims to encourage young singers at the start of their careers and to foster new talent in the opera and oratorio-lied world. This year’s competition was short on talented tenors, according to the critics’ reviews, with three of the main winners being baritones.

The first prize was jointly awarded to the Lithuanian soprano Katerina Tretyakova, aged 32, and to the Polish baritone Michal Jakub Partyka, aged 27. The winners were announced on Friday night, after the final stage of the competition, which took place on Friday afternoon. As the ‘Grand Prize’ winners, they will receive €20,000 – funded by the private foundation Puig and the Gran Teatre del Liceu –, a contract to perform in the Catalan theatre and in the the Teatro Real of Madrid next season and a gold-plated commemorative medal.

The second prize was given to baritone Amartuvshin, who is from Mongolia and aged 26. The award consists of a silver medal and a €10,000 prize, offered by the Catalan savings bank La Caixa through its Obra Social foundation. The third prize was for the Moldovan baritone, Valeriu Caradja, aged 31. The award consists of a bronze medal and a €7,000 prize, offered by the Associació de Liceites 4t i 5è pis, Law Firm-Bergós and Fra Diavolo.

In the junior category, which was created this year for young talent aged under 26, the winner of the ‘Maria Esperança Salvans Piera’ first prize was the Georgian soprano Marina Nachkebiya, aged 25. The second junior prize was for the Korean tenor Hoe Rim Park, aged 21, and the third position was for the Korean baritone Byong Ick Cho, aged 23.

An exhibition and a book honouring Francesc Viñas and the competition

In order to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the international singing competition and the 150^th anniversary of Francesc Viñas’ birth, the Gran Teatre del Liceu has organised a temporary exhibition on the life of the Catalan tenor and the history of the competition named after him. Francesc Viñas was the first person to think of organising an international competition to foster young talented singers. However, he died in 1933, before he could create such a contest. Due to Spain’s convoluted history in the years after he died, it was not until 1963 that the competition was finally created, and it was named after him. The exhibition is open to the public until the 28^th of March, in the theatre’s Foyer Balcony. It can be visited while attending to a concert or an opera, or during the theatre’s guided tours.

Furthermore, the Catalan opera house published a book about the competition, which includes a DVD with the performances of some of the prize winners of the last few years. The book was written by Liceu’s musical directors and opera critics Joan Francesc Marco, Joan Matabosch, Roger Alier, Agustí Fancelli and Miquel Lerín; the latter is a great-grandson of Francesc Viñas.