1982 THE WINNERS

Elzbieta Szmytka

“Polish soprano Elżbieta Szmytka’s tonal security and expressive means in a difficult Lutosławski song and her souplesse in Rusalka’s aria guaranteed her place in the finals.” (Brabants Dagblad, September 4, 1982)

Elżbieta Szmytka graduated from the Academy of Music in Kraków, where she studied voice under Helena Łazarska. Following her IVC victory she was engaged by the Dutch National Opera, where she debuted on April 8, 1983, as Blöndchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail. In the Netherlands, where she performed frequently once she learned Dutch, she was known for her Gilda (1983 and 1988). She eventually settled in Brussels following her 1984 debut at De Munt. Her career highlights include appearances in Vienna, Geneva, Berlin, Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne and Los Angeles. Mozart features prominently in her repertoire, with Susanna, the Queen of the Night, Pamina, Despina, Donna Anna and Konstanze. Among her Verdi roles are Tebaldo ( Don Carlo), Oscar (Un ballo in maschera), Nanetta (Falstaff) and Violetta (La traviata). She has also sung the soprano leads in DerFreischütz, L’elisir d’amore, Ariadne auf Naxos, Der Rosenkavalier, Alcina, L’incoronazione di Poppea,Medea (the Cherubini in 2007 and the Mayr in 2009), Leonore and Die Fledermaus, as well as the Milliner in Nino Rota’s Il capello di paglia di Firenze and Roxana in Karol Szymanovsky’s Król Roger. On January 25, 2006, at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, she created the role of Virginia in Michael Jarrell’s Galilée. Szmytka is also a renowned recital artist, having sung the Mozart Requiem, Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder and Szymanovsky’s Stabat Mater as well as his song cycles. She performed under such conductors as John Pritchard, Sylvain Cambreling, Georg Solti, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, John Eliot Gardiner, Simon Rattle, Claudio Abbado, Neville Marriner and Andrew Davis. Szmytka made many recordings for radio and television, among them Król Roger under the baton of Simon Rattle for EMI.

Ildkó Komlósi

“Ildikó Komlósi secured her Second Prize mostly with her clear and beautiful mezzo voice, although she needs to reach deeper levels of interpretation.” (Brabants Dagblad, September 6, 1982)

Hungarian mezzo-soprano Ildikó Komlósi (b. 1959, Békésszentandrás) came to the IVC at a young age. Her Second Prize proved an early recognition of her considerable talents. Her victory in the 1986 Pavarotti International Voice Competition resulted in her Verdi Requiem debut opposite Pavarotti himself, conducted by Lorin Maazel. This catapulted her into a career that brought her to Oper Frankfurt (1989), the Vienna State Opera (1989), Milan’s Teatro Lirico (where she sang the title role in the world premiere of Azio Corghi’s Blimunda), Chile’s Teatro Municipal (1993, in Lucrezia Borgia and Anna Bolena), Strasbourg (1998, as Joan of Arc in Tchaikovsky’s The Maid of Orleans), the Metropolitan Opera (1999, in Massenet’s Werther), Carnegie Hall, Mexico’s Palacio de Bellas Artes (1993), the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples (2001, in Don Carlo), Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Arena di Verona, Covent Garden and De Munt in Brussels (2002, as Amneris). Among the conductors she worked with are Colin Davis, Iván Fischer, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta and Antonio Pappano. Her main roles were Donna Elvira, Judith (Bluebeard’s Castle), Carmen, Preziosilla (La forza del destino), Ariadne, Santuzza, Amneris, Jocasta, the Principessa di Bouillon ( Adriana Lecouvreur), Salome, Kundry, Ježibaba (Rusalka), the Nurse (Die Frau ohne Schatten) and Cassandre (Les Troyens ). She also sang the mezzo parts in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, the Verdi and Dvořák Requiems, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Beethoven’s Missa solemnis. Komlósi recorded for Decca, BMG, Dynamic and other labels. She certainly laid to rest the Brabants Dagblad critic’s concerns about needing more depth in her interpretations.

Anna Caleb

“At the concluding Gala Concert the winners wholly justified their prizes, except… mezzo-soprano Anna Caleb, whose performance was prevented by a bomb alarm aimed against a gathering of politicians elsewhere in the Casino Theatre - a combination that would best be avoided in the future.” (Karin Maria Kwant, Mens en Melodie, October 1982)

“The bomb threat prevented Caleb from repeating her achievement of singing Rosina’s cavatina from Il barbiere di Siviglia with three different ornamentations and each interpretation radically opposed to the previous ones. Shame on this bomber for not having waited with his threat for just a few minutes more!” (Henry de Rouville, “Au fond ils ont besoins d’être aimés,” September 1982)