06 June 2014, Friday

The International Opera Singers Competition, which was organized in Moscow for the fifth time, is named after Galina Vishnevskaya, the jewel in the crown of the Russian opera tradition, and this is not for nothing. Galina P. Vishnevskaya used to say: "The profession of a singer is a very hard one; there are no easy rides in art, and you can learn the real secrets of this profession and to achieve whatever you dream about only if you devote yourself to this art fully. You need to follow this rule during your whole life". The singer herself followed this rule for more than half a century.
She first performed onstage in the beginning of 1950s and became "a bargaining chip in the Bolshoi's pack" at once; later she became one of the most favorite opera divas in the world. During the last decade of her life, Vishnevskaya devoted all her efforts to providing support for young talented singers. Thanks to Vishnevskaya, the modern Opera Center opened in Moscow, the prestigious project "Young Opera Singers Assemblies" was established, and the competition, named after her, has been organized since 2006. The program of the competition includes opera repertoire only: as envisioned by Vishnevskaya, the goal of the competition is to open doors to the big stage for young and talented opera singers.
No one doubts the effectiveness of the project: laureates and diploma-winners of the previous four competitions joined the opera companies of the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky theatres, the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre, the Mikhailovsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, and opera theatres in Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Rome, Paris, etc.
This year the Galina Vishnevskaya Competition had four rounds, just as usual: the preliminary video competition, the first and second rounds to piano accompaniment and the final third round to the orchestra accompaniment. According to the results of the second round that finished on June 4th at the Opera Center, the jury, headed by Olga Rostropovich, chose "the magnificent seven": Angelika Minasova, Svetlana Moskalenko, Anastasia Schegoleva, Alexander Nesterenko, Irina Moreva, Konstantin Suchkov and Boris Dyakov. On June 5th they performed on the Bolshoi Theatre New Stage, where the final round, the award ceremony and the competition closing ceremony took place.