V International Competition of Opera Singers «SAINT-PETERSBURG»

V INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION OF OPERA SINGERS
«SAINT-PETERSBURG»
will take place in Saint-Petersburg in 2011 from November 25 to December 5.

ORGANIZERS OF THE COMPETITION

  • Ministry of Culture of Russia
  • committee for culture of the Government of Saint-Petersburg
  • Saint-Petersburg State Conservatory named after N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov
  • Irina Bogacheva Foundation «Art-Petersburg»

THE JURY

HEAD OF JURY

Honorary Citizen of Saint-Petersburg, People's Artist of USSR, soloist of the Mariinsky theatre, head of the Department of Solo Singing of Saint-Petersburg State Conservatory, professor Irina BOGACHEVA









MEMBERS OF JURY

Galina VISHNEVSKAYA (Russia)

Tito CAPOBIANCO (Argentina)

José FERNANDEZ (Spain)

Sergey LEIFERKUS People's Artist of Russia (Russia)

Roberto MAURO (Canada)

Alexandrina MILTCHEVA (Bulgaria)

Dennis O'NEILL (Great Britain)

Galina PISARENKO People's Artist of Russia (Russia)

Lenore ROSENBERG (USA)

Christina SCHEPPELMANN (USA)

CONDUCTOR OF THE COMPETITION

Wiktor Bockman

Wiktor Bockman outstanding german conductor, more desired guest on the opera and concert stages, producer, artist director of the opera and concert association “Artist Direction Stage” in Switzerland, general director and art council of the Classic Festival Aspendos in Turkey (antic theatre, called Turkish arena di Verona), member and art council of the opera association “Dimensione Lirica” in Venezia, Italy.

WB was born in Wroclaw in Poland. He studied from 1981 to 1986 at the music academy in Krakow with the violin faculty by the professor Daniel Stabrava (the first violine in the Berlin Philharmonia), by the professor Weslaw Kwashnij (the first violin in the Warsowia Symphony) and in the conductor faculty by Christof Penderezkij. The completion at the academy was followed by additional studies in Zurich (Switzerland) by Nathan Milstein and in Munich (Germany) by Jacob Gilman.

The following concerts in Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and Poland and Russia ) were a great success. In this period Wiktor Bockman became a laureate violinist in many international competitions.

His special interest for conducting developed also during this time; when he, as a solo violinist, got the possibility to play with orchestras directed by famous conducters, such as Leonard Bernstein, Bernard Lang, Gomez Martinez, Sauljus Sondezkis, Jurosh Lajovic, Michail Jurowski.

Through the influence of the Slavic and the Western music stiles the artistic professionality grows, the musical expression sharpens, finally a serious desire to ascend behind the conductors desk.

Since the year 2000 follow invitations for conducting opera and symphonic works with the outstanding orchestras and opera theatres in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Romania, Poland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Russia, Mexico, Venezuela, South Korea

A great love for the Italian opera guides him to Milano, Italy where during two years he proceeds with an intensive work in rehearsal, study, execution of the Italian opera with such known interpreters as Claudio Abbado, Nello Santi, Renato Bruson, Carlos Montane, Ion Busea.

Wiktor Bockman also uses his violin experience in his conducting (physical proximity for each musical tune, sensitivity for sound term, possibility to extract the maximum out of every instrument).

Free usage of the German, English, Russian, Polish and Italian languages, regular meetings with musical groups from different countries, acquaintance with the their traditions in execution, desire to reconcile cultural interests – all this served as the push for the beginning of the producer-activity for Wiktor Bockman.

As a producer, artistic director and chief conductor, since 2005 he’s annually directing opera tours (among other operas of Rimsky-Korsakov “The Tsar's Bride“,Bizet „Carmen“, Verdi „La Traviata“, Rossini „Il Barbiere di Sevilla“ Puccini „Madame Butterfly , „La Boheme“ and Donizetti, „La Favorita“) in Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Holland, Luxembourg and Russia, with different opera ensembles.

WB is frequently as a jury member at international singing competitions. For example, in October 2010 at the First International Singing Competition in Odessa, dedicated A. Neshdanova.

The last appearances as a conductor, led Wiktor Bockman to Arena di Verona, where he is a regular guest, even to Mexico City and Palermo, where his performance was one of the highlights of the festival Palemo Classica together with the Mozart specialist Paul Badura Skoda (Piano).
In March 2012, will Wiktor Bockman lead the famous New York Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall.

ADMINISTRATION

Phone/Fax +7 (812) 312-10-88

Elena GAUDASINSKAYA
Director of the Competition
Honored Artist of Russia
artpetersburg@mail.ru

Alexander KLIMENKO
Executive Director of the Competition
+7-921-321-39-02 (mobile)
alanklim@rambler.ru

COMPETITION SCHEDULE

OPENING CEREMONY

November 25
Small Hall of the Saint-Petersburg State Conservatory

I ROUND

November 26 and 27
Small Hall of the Saint-Petersburg State Conservatory

II ROUND

November 29 and 30
Small Hall of the Saint-Petersburg State Conservatory

III ROUND

December 3
Grand Hall of the Saint-Petersburg State Conservatory

LAUREATES' GALA, CLOSING CEREMONY

December 5 at 19.00
Grand Hall of the Saint-Petersburg State Philharmonic

RULES

I.APPLICATION PROCEDURE

  1. The competition is open to singers aged from 18 to 32 years old at the time of competition, graduates or students of academic institutions of music.
  2. The competition consists of two eliminatory and one final rounds. All rounds are open to public, the order of performance is determined by ballot and will be the same for all the rounds.
  3. The completed application form, together with enclosures in electronic format should be sent to the Competition administration e-mail artpetersburg@mail.ru by October 20, 2011
List of application documents to be presented by the applicant

completed application form [download];

copy of passport

copy of the diploma for graduates, certificate from place of studies for students

CV must contain the following information:

  • name, title and rank of the teacher
  • prizes and diplomas at the competitions
  • current affairs

The photo (a personal photo of the singer, colored, art, portrait, a close up, size not less than 500 Kb)

Applications that are incomplete or sent to the Competition Office after the date specified will not be considered.

The application fee of 1500 Rubles is to be paid upon arrival to the competition before the ballot.

All applicants allowed to the competition will be notified by e-mail or fax stated in the application form. They will receive an invitation with the date of arrival to the competition. Invitations will be sent by ordinary mail only to citizens of countries which are required entry visa to Russia.

II.COMPETITION SCHEDULE

  1. The order of performance decided by ballot at the beginning of the competition will be the same in each round until the end of the competition.
  2. The decisions of jury is final and will not be reconsidered.
  3. No more than half of the participants of the First Round will take part in the Second Round.
  4. No more that 16 participants of the Second Round will be allowed to the Final Round. The prizes will be assigned by the Jury on their final meeting.
  5. The Jury has the right to reduce a program or to stop a performance which exceeds the regulations or in case of an evident result of a performance upon agreement of all Members of Jury
  6. The final decision of any disputable questions which may arise during the competition is reserved to the President of the Competition.
  7. The prize-winners and competitors assigned diplomas must take part in 2 to 3 concerts upon the end of the Competition without any payment.
  8. The competition organizers have unlimited rights to broadcast and record, videotape, televise, film and photograph the competition events and to make audio or visual recordings of them and to broadcast them without any payment to the competitors. The organizers have right to contract a third party to distribute the above motioned material of the Competition.

III. PIANISTS

  1. The Competition Administration will place a qualified pianist at the disposal of each competitor upon request sent not later than October 10, 2011.
  2. If a competitor wishes to bring his or her own pianist he or she must bear all the expenses for pianist's travel and accommodation.

IV. REHEARSALS

  1. The Competition Administration will offer rehearsing rooms and 15 minutes rehearsing time at the Hall to every competitor.
  2. The competitors selected to the Final Round will have a rehearsal with the orchestra the day before the performance.

V. PRIZES

Grand-prix of 7500$ and the title of Laureate

Two 1st Prizes of 5000$ and the title of Laureate

Two 2nd Prizes of 3000$ and the title of Laureate

Two 3rd Prizes of 1500$ and the title of Laureate

SPECIAL PRIZES OF THE COMPETITION

Competition prizes of 500$ are assigned to:

the youngest competitor

the best performance of a piece by a composer from Saint-Petersburg

the best performance of an aria of a foreign composer

the best performance of a piece to the poetry of Alexander Pushkin

exquisite artistic interpretation and mastery of performance

The competitors of the Final Round not awarded the main prizes and the title of Laureate will be assigned a prize of 500$ and an Honorary Diploma.

The Jury has a right to reward three best pianists of the competition with Special Diploma and a prize of 300$.

The prizes are given in rubles according to the rate of Central Bank of Russia on the day of payment.

Within the limit of the award fund the Jury is entitled to:

  • assign some of the prizes
  • divide the prizes (with the exception of the Grand-prix) among the Laureates.

State and social organizations, artistic associations, mass media, institutions and firms may establish special prizes upon agreement of the Competition Jury.

VI. FINANCIAL AMENDMENTS

  1. The Administration of the contest pays contestants who reached the Second Round trip to St. Petersburg and back.
  2. The Administration will offer accommodation and will reimburse the accommodation expenses of the contestants from the Second Round on. The accommodation of the contestants of the Second Round not passed to the Final Round will be reimbursed up to 12 a.m. of the day following the day of the announcement of the results of the Second Round.
  3. The accommodation of the contestants of the Final Round will be reimbursed up to 12 a.m. of the day following the day of the official closing ceremony of the competition.
  4. The contestants not passed to the Second or Final Rounds may stay until the end of the Competition on their own expense.
  5. The Competition Committee will not reimburse any expenses of the pianists brought by the contestants.
  6. Upon early request, the Competition Committee is ready to give assistance in booking hotels, attending the Competition events and cultural programs to persons accompanying the contestants on their expense.
  7. The contestants must produce passports and visas themselves and on their expense.

COMPETITION PROGRAM

1 ROUND

  1. One aria from an opera, a cantata or an oratorio of XVI-XVIII centuries including Mozart
  2. An opera aria of contestant's choice
  3. A song to the lyrics of a poet from Saint-Petersburg of XVIII-XX centuries (Derzhavin, Sumarokov, Pushkin, Lermontov, Blok, Sasha Tcherny, Akhmatova, Volodin and others)

2 ROUND

  1. One aria from an opera of one of the following Western composers:
    Beethoven, Donizetti, Bellini, Rossini, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, Gounod, Bizet, Delibes, Leoncavallo, Mascagni, Cilea, Boito

  2. One aria from a Russian opera of the XIX century
  3. A song of a West-European composer of the XVIII-XIX centuries

3 ROUND

(Final listening accompanied by an orchestra)

  1. An opera aria for choice the participant
  2. An aria from an opera of Petersburg composer XIX-XX centuries (Glinka, Borodin, Musorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Slonimsky, etc.)

Important

  • the contestants must check the availability of the scores and orchestra parts of the arias to be performed in the Final Round with the Competition committee. In case of their unavailability at the Competition, the contestants must present them for performance in the Final Round.
  • All works must be performed from memory and in the original language.
  • No piece may appear twice in the contestant's repertoire.
  • Amendments to the repertoire will be exceptionally allowed upon the agreement of the Head of Jury.