The Oper! Oscars: A complete winners list

The OPER! AWARDS 2023 were presented during a festive gala on 27 February 2023. Among the awardees of the main categories are the US soprano Lisette Oropesa (Best Female Singer), the German baritone Michael Volle (Best Male Singer), the Belgian conductor René Jacobs (Honorary Lifetime Achievement) and the Franco-Lebanese festival director Pierre Audi (Best Festival). Already in January, the Theater Dortmund under its director Heribert Germeshausen had been announced as the winner of the Best Opera House award.

The award for Outstanding Engagement was presented to the Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv (pictured). Not only was she the first female conductor at the Bayreuth Festival and the first woman to become leader of an Italian opera orchestra, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. She has also grown to be a role model for other artists through her untiring social engagement in the face of Vladimir Putin’s war against her home country.

Apart from awards for outstanding artists and organisations, the jury also presents a ‘Golden Raspberry’. This year, the anti-award is presented to the city of Krefeld for the neglect of its theatre forecourt: “If you want to attend the opera in Krefeld, you will have to make your way through the local drugs scene. There are dealers on the theatre’s parking deck, its forecourt is a refuge for the town’s homeless addicts, with all the attendant issues: violence, desperation, destruction, rubbish, death. In the lingo of the municipal public order department this policy is described as ‘bundling’. What it means is: ‘exclude and forget’.

BEST OPERA HOUSE: Theater Dortmund
BEST FEMALE SINGER: Lisette Oropesa
BEST MALE SINGER: Michael Volle
BEST CONDUCTOR: Gianandrea Noseda
BEST DIRECTOR: Claus Guth
BEST ORCHESTRA: Berliner Philharmoniker for Pique Dame
BEST CHOIR: Slovak Philharmonic Choir for Pique Dame
BEST WORLD PREMIERE: Eurydice – Die Liebenden, blind at the Opera Amsterdam
BEST PERFORMANCE: The Devils of Loudun at the Bavarian State Opera
BEST STAGE DESIGNER: Ulrich Rasche for Elektra at the Opera Geneva
BEST COSTUME DESIGNERS: Ersan Mondtag and Annika Lu for Antikrist at the Deutsche Oper Berlin
BEST SOLO ALBUM: Arias with Jonathan Tetelman
BEST OPERA RECORDING: Robert le Diable (Palazzetto Bru Zane)
BEST NEWCOMER: Konstantin Krimmel
BEST REDISCOVERY: FOKUS ’33 of the Theater Bonn
BEST FESTIVAL: Festival d’Aix-en-Provence
BEST SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE: Musiktheater im Revier & Theater Regensburg
HONORARY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT: René Jacobs
OUTSTANDING ENGAGEMENT: Oksana Lyniv
BEST EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES PROJECT: Not presented this year
GOLDEN RASPBERRY FOR THE BIGGEST NUISANCE: The theatre forecourt in Krefeld