1983 THE WINNERS

Judith Malafronte

“The ‘Day of the Mezzos’ became a veritable triumph for the overwhelming American mezzo Judith Malafronte, whose reputation is already established. Malafronte, age 32, has a bell-like voice and fabulous technique, especially in coloratura. The only one to receive a curtain call during the finals, she triumphed even before the jury had a chance to honor her.” (Ferd op de Coul, “Sensationeel optreden Malafronte,” September 1973)

American mezzo-soprano Judith Malafronte (b. August 20, 1951, New Haven, Connecticut) told critic Ferd op de Coul that she had to overcome some fears in order to return to Den Bosch, where in 1982 she had lost in the semifinals. Said Malafronte:

“A little voice inside my head kept bugging me to try again. So many things happened that year, so many people gave all sorts of advice, and I got confused. … I am glad I got the chance to show the people here what I have been doing for the past year. … I learned my trade from Giulietta Simionato, an amazing, indestructible and energetic living legend who taught me to approach each role in any given language individually. … More theoretical and technical things I studied with Nadia Boulanger. I prefer tragic roles to comic opera because in my heart I am a serious person and then, well, comic roles are much more difficult because timing is crucial for the effect. … The IVC was not my Dutch debut: in Utrecht, some years back, I performed in the world premiere of a Steve Reich composition.”

Malafronte had an impressive career in opera, oratorio, and recital. Her operatic roles include major mezzo parts in Serse, Scarlatti’sL’Aldimiro, Dido and Aeneas (singing both Dido and the Sorceress), Tamerlano, L’incoronazione di Poppea and Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria. She recorded for BMG, DHM, EMI, and Koch in a wide range of repertoire, from the 12^th-century chant of Hildegard von Bingen to Richard Strauss, as well as Handel operas, Bach cantatas, medieval music and 17^th-century Spanish music.

Eliz‹abeth Campbell

“Malafronte may be the star of this IVC, yet one should not overlook the excellent competition from considerable talents such as Elizabeth Campbell whose rendition of a song cycle by De Falla was a first-class achievement.” (Ferd op de Coul, “Vier Prijzen,” September 1983)

“The Australian Elizabeth Campbell made a tremendous impact with some Schoenberg songs, rendered with great dramatic power, rich coloring and an enormous compass.” (Ferd op de Coul, “Slotconcert Imponerend,” September 1983)

Australian mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Campbell graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and completed her studies in London and Europe. Apart from winning Second Prize and the Elly Ameling Song Prize in Den Bosch, she represented Australia in the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. She made her operatic debut as Carmen with West Australia Opera. Her operatic repertoire includes leading roles in Così fan tutte, Evgeni Onegin,Carmen, Serse, Giulio Cesare, Alcina, La clemenza di Tito,Boris Godunov, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Les Troyens, Les contes d’Hoffmann, Werther, Hänsel und Gretel,La forza del destino, Il trovatore, Madama Butterfly, Lulu, Peter Grimes, Die Fledermaus,L’incoronazione di Poppea, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Capriccio, Rigoletto, Andrea Chénier, The Turn of the Screw and Dead Man Walking, as well as the world premieres of Richard Mills’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1996), Batavia (2001) and The Love of the Nightingale (2002) and Moya Henderson’s Lindy (2002). Campbell is one of Australia’s leading concert artists and recitalists. Additionally, she has performed at Covent Garden, toured the United States with the Sydney Symphony and given recitals at Wigmore Hall and in The Hague and Antwerp. Currently she is shifting her repertoire to more mature roles. Her recordings include Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Elgar’s Sea Pictures, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Messiah, Giulio Cesare, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll and South Australia’s Ring cycle.

Nellie van der Sijde

“The Brabant Orchestra under Jan Stulen accompanied Brabant-born Nellie van der Sijde with Mozartian charm in ‘Porgi amor’ from Le nozze di Figaro , and she sang it to perfection. Her light, agile voice and her musical understanding are magnificent not only in arias but also in lieder, as could be heard in Wolf and, even better, in Schubert’s ‘Gretchen am Spinnrade,’ very accurately accompanied from the piano by Frans van Ruth.” (Ferd op de Coul, Brabants Dagblad, September 8, 1983)

1994 THE WINNERS

Sophie Koch

“When she walked onstage it was clear that hers was a genuine stage personality. Her arias from Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots and Rossini’s Barbiere were wholly individual creations. She can still win in coloratura, but even there she revealed a rare poetic level of expression.” (Katja Reichenfeld, NRC, September 9, 1994)

French mezzo-soprano Sophie Koch (b. 1969, Versailles) studied with Jane Berbié at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. Her IVC First Prize proved the upbeat to a world-class career that began modestly in France. She made her international breakthrough at Covent Garden in 1998, where she triumphed in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Così fan tutte. Later on she established herself as an audience favorite everywhere from the Semperoper Dresden, as the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos under the direction of Colin Davis, to the Bavarian State Opera, with appearances inDon Giovanni and Orfeo. Her Viennese debut as Cherubino resulted in an immediate offer for her to sing Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier. The success of her portrayal in that role was such that she ranks as the greatest Octavian of our time, and she has been performing it around the globe since. She has appeared in Berlin, Milan, Vienna and London and is a household name in Paris. Since 2010 she has sung more dramatic roles, such as Venus in Tannhäuser at the Opéra Bastille in 2011. Other important roles have been Fricka in DasRheingold and Die Walküre and Waltraute in Götterdämmerung. She appeared with Roberto Alagna in Alceste in 2013 and the next year made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Charlotte in Werther opposite Jonas Kaufmann. Her concert appearances are too numerous to list here. She has recorded songs by Schubert, Wolf, Fauré, Chausson, Respighi, Schumann and Richard Strauss. On DVD the full glory of her voice and stage personality can be appreciated in Ariadne auf Naxos (Composer), Così fan tutte (as Dorabella, on Decca), Der Rosenkavalier (Octavian) and Werther (Charlotte).

Karina Gauvin

“No wonder she won the Audience Prize. So natural, so clear and transparent, technically perfect. Some songs would have moved even the most insensitive person to tears. I would have given her First Prize.” (Wil Derkse, Brabants Dagblad, September 9, 1994) The jury did not award the Great Prize, but in this case the audience had the better ear when it gave Karina Gauvin (b. 1965, Repentigny, Quebec) Den Bosch’s first official Audience Prize. The 1994 IVC was truly one of those years that seemed to be overflowing with talent. Besides Koch, there were Sarah Connolly, James Oxley, Oana-Andra Ulieriu, Leonardo De Lisi, Olga Pasichnyk and Irene Maessen. Yet I have a personal weakness for the Canadian soprano, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing several times and then heard in concert and as Armide in Amsterdam in 2013. Opera News had earlier hailed her as a queen of baroque opera, with a personality big enough to dominate her elaborate wigs and costumes. On top of that, they added, hers was “a voice that sounds like a clear, refreshing and inexhaustible spring that darts and sparkles around any ornamental obstacle in its way.” Both her parents were opera singers, and Karina’s first experiences were with the Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus at the age of eight. She made her professional opera debut with the Glimmerglass Opera and, amazingly, was still competing at age 34 (winning prize after prize). She has sung in concerts with the Chicago Symphony, Les Violons du Roy, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Montreal and Quebec Symphony Orchestras, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, among others. Her discography includes a program of Antonio Vivaldi motets (1999); Händel arias from Agrippina and Alcina; Fêtes galantes, featuring French songs; a Christmas recording (2000); and a CD with arias of Porpora (2009). She may have been a late bloomer, but currently she is blossoming like never before.

Leonardo De Lisi

“The jury surprised everyone with an Italian First Prize winner in the song category, the 28-year-old Leonardo De Lisi. Of course this ever smiling, curly-haired charmer sang even Schumann’s ‘Dichterliebe’ with operatic exuberance, yet he identified himself intensely with the words. Perhaps it wasn’t bad either to see the analytical, scientific approach to Schubert or Wolf replaced with a bit of southern bravura. He didn’t sing in great arcs, as Germans do, but raised much tension within parts of sentences.” (Ivo Postma, De Gelderlander, September 9, 1994)