Vienna Opera voice coach wins Bartok competition

The solo voice coach (Solo-repetitor) of the Vienna State Opera finds himself unexpectedly in the limelight this morning.

Albin Fries’s opera Nora has won the international Bartók Opera Composition Competition, chaired by the Hungarian composer, Péter Eötvös.

Albin has posted this victory statement:

I would like to thank all those who have believed in my opera “Nora” in recent years … My special thanks go to four singers who, out of enthusiasm and without pay, recorded the first scene for me in the studio: Thomas Moser, Elisabeth Flechl, Elisabeth Kulman and Morten Larsen. For my prompter colleague Michael Suppan who has worked tirelessly for this opera until his death, your success is sadly too late. I do not need to thank those 18 (out of 20) Directors who did not find the effort to respond to my request or at least return the score. The EX-intendant of the Graz Opera on Nora: “Can one still write like this today?” My reply: ” I don’t know, I’m not a lawyer.”