Just in: Romanian and Norwegian win Domingo’s Operalia
mainAnd the winners are…..
men
1 Ioan Hotea tenor (Romania)
2 Darren Pene Pati tenor (New Zealand)
3 Edward Parks baritone (USA)
women
1 Lise Davidsen soprano (Norway)
2 Hyesang Park soprano (South Korea)
3 Noluvuyiso Mpofu soprano (South Africa)
Slipped Disc has tipped Lise from the outset. She has a big career ahead.
The audience prize went to Darren Pene Pati and Lise Davidsen.
I picked the two winners in the audience vote.
Number 2 above should shorten his name, especially if he wants to conquer Italy: his middle name translates there as penis.
Or lengthen his middle name by one additional ‘n’.
Dick Van Dyke didn’t bother to change his name, as far as I know, despite appreciably more unfortunate connotations in his own home culture.
I find your comment insulting to this fine young singer. He is of Samoan decent and all respect is due to his heritage. Why should he change his name to suit other cultures? If suggest you open your mind and become less Eurocentric.
I think anyone who was in the audience tonight would have to agree that the first and second prize winners in both the male and female voice categories stood head and shoulders above all other finalists, and that the distance between the first and second prize winners was narrow, if not actually non-existent. I felt that the audience actually got it right with the male voice audience prize, and I cast my vote for Darren Pene Pati and was delighted that he won. Indeed, he has already won first prizes at the Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge Bel Canto Award and the Montserrat Caballé International Singing Competition. I’d have liked to have seen him win the male voice zarzuela as well. But if I was confident in predicting, incorrectly, as it turned out, that Darren Pene Pati would take male voice first prize and Ioan Hotea second prize, the female voice category was just too close to call. It was clear that Lise Davidsen and Hyesang Park would take first and second prizes, but I doubt anybody could have said with confidence in which order they would be placed. If I heard correctly I think Domingo said that in both voice categories the decision hung on three votes. Judging from the applause and cheering for Hyesang Park, not just at the end of her aria, but in the middle of it, I was fairly certain that she would take the audience prize, though Lise Davidsen was by no means an undeserving winner.
Great day for those who support the development/expansion of classical singing among Polynesian nationalities, I’m sure. Congrats to all of the winners.