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An update on where the Competition winners are now. |
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1983: Karita Mattila
Karita Mattila from Finland is one of today's most exciting lyric dramatic sopranos, recognised as much for the beauty and versatility of her voice as for her extraordinary stage ability.
She sings repertoire encompassing Mozart, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Puccini, Wagner and Janácek in all the world's major opera houses and festivals. Her affinity with the dramatic side of opera has produced marvellous results when working with stage directors such as Luc Bondy, in whose highly acclaimed Don Carlos she achieved a remarkable performance.
Karita Mattila performs and records with the world's great conductors. Recent recordings include Strauss's Four Last Songs with Claudio Abbado and Janácek's Jenufa with Bernard Haitink, which won the Grammy Award for Opera in 2004.
Major international awards include one of France's highest cultural honours, the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.
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1985: David Malis
American lyric baritone David Malis had never before sung outside the USA when he entered the Cardiff competition. Now he has many credits throughout the world, including Ford in Peter Stein's acclaimed production of Falstaff, a role in which he has become renowned and has performed in houses from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden to Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.
Currently his career is mainly based in the US, where he is a regular performer at all the major houses including San Francisco and the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
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1987: Valeria Esposito
Soprano Valeria Esposito found that the international acclaim which accompanied her win did not initially make much impact at home in Italy - at least until she was able to perform for Muti and Abbado. Since then she has performed extensively throughout the world with them and other major conductors.
She now has a busy international career, performing roles as diverse as Queen of the Night Die Zauberflöte at Baltimore Opera, Olympia Les contes d'Hoffmann at Vienna State Opera and Violetta La traviata at Budapest Opera.
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1989: Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Siberian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky took part in the scorching Final in which Bryn Terfel won the Lieder prize, and has become an international superstar with lucrative recording contracts. He frequently appears at all the major opera houses, his most notable roles including the title roles in Eugene Onegin and Don Giovanni, Figaro Il barbiere di Siviglia and Posa Don Carlos. He also undertakes concert work all over the world, both in recital and with orchestra.
Dmitri Hvorostovsky has an extensive discography, including opera recordings of Eugene Onegin, La Traviata, Cavalleria Rusticana, The Tsar's Bride and Don Carlo. He has also recorded recital and aria discs of Neapolitan songs, Russian Romances, Italian arias and bel canto arias as well as Russian sacred music.
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1991: Lisa Gasteen
Australian soprano Lisa Gasteen is fast becoming the Wagnerian soprano of choice for the major houses of the world. Her debut in the role of Isolde at the Royal Opera House in 2002 was greeted with universal critical acclaim, and has performed there again in 2005 as Brunnhilde with Bryn Terfel as Wotan in Die Walküre, again to great acclaim.
Her other roles include Amelia in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, Chrysothemis in Strauss' Elektra and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, at opera houses throughout the world.
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1993: Inger Dam-Jensen
Danish soprano Inger Dam-Jensen's critically acclaimed concert performances include appearances with the New York Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic and the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Her operatic home is at the Royal Danish Opera where a string of outstanding successes include the roles of Cleopatra, Susanna, Ophelia, Musetta, Zdenka and Gilda. She has also appeared at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Geneva Opera and Opéra National de Paris. Recordings include the award-winning Solomon under Paul McCreesh and Brahms' German Requiem under Gerd Albrecht.
In 2005-6 she sings the role of Bella in Tippett's A Midsummer Marriage at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the role of Violetta for the first time at Royal Danish Opera.
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1995: Katarina Karnéus
Internationally active as a concert and recital singer, Swedish mezzo Katarina Karnéus' recent engagements have included the BBC Proms, the Salzburg and Edinburgh Festivals, and concerts in Madrid, Barcelona, San Francisco, New York and Buckingham Palace.
Future engagements include recitals at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and London, and concerts in Paris, Düsseldorf, Berlin, Minnesota and Washington.
Operatic engagements in recent seasons have included Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Glyndebourne, the Opera National de Paris, Welsh National Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Metropolitan Opera, the Châtelet and La Monnaie, Brussels.
Future operatic engagements include performances Komponist in Geneva, Dorabella in Munich, the title role of Xerxes for English National Opera and Sesto and Brangäne for Glyndebourne Festival.
She has made several recordings, and her most recent, of Sibelius songs, has been met with unanimous critical praise. A second volume of Sibelius Songs is planned.
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1997: Guang Yang
Within six years of giving up work in a textile factory to study singing, Chinese mezzo Guang Yang had won this prestigious title. In addition to appearing in concerts and opera throughout Europe, Guang Yang continued with her studies, attending The Juilliard School in New York.
In 2001 she won Placido Domingo's Operalia Competition and is now a member of the Young Artists Programme at the Chicago Lyric Opera, where roles include Albine Thaïs and Annina La traviata.
She returns to Cardiff in the autumn of 2005 to perform in Don Carlos with Welsh National Opera.
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1999: Anja Harteros
German soprano Anja Harteros has made guest appearances at the opera houses of Frankfurt, Lyon, Berlin, München, Wien, Dresden, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Paris, San Diego and at the Salzburg and Edinburgh festivals, working with conductors like Zubin Mehta, James Conlon, Sylvain Cambreling and Jesus Lopez-Cobos,
Her repertoire contains roles as Mimi (La Bohème), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte), Micaela (Carmen), Eva (Meistersinger), Violetta (La Traviata), Amelia (Simon Boccanegra), Desdemona (Otello) and Alice Ford (Falstaff).
She has appeared in concerts in London, Florence, Vicenza, Tel Aviv, Cardiff, Cologne, Boston and Bonn.
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2001: Marius Brenciu
In 2002, Romanian tenor Marius Brenciu debuted at the BBC Proms with Goyescas by Granados, followed by his debut at the Edinburgh International Festival. This followed a highly successful recital at London's St John's Smith Square and a return to the same venue for a performance of Handel arias with the Academy of Ancient Music.
Recent engagements include performances of Eugene Onegin for the Deutsche Oper, Berlin, the New Israeli Opera, Tel Aviv, Toulouse and Welsh National Opera as well as the role of Alfredo in Verdi's La Traviata, again for the Deutsche Oper. He has performed Prunier (Puccini's La Rondine) with performances both at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse and the Châtelet.
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2003: Tommi Hakala
Finnish baritone Tommi Hakala graduated from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with special distinction in 1998, then performed numerous leading roles at Nuremberg Opera as well as several other houses, including Finnish National Opera.His years at Leipzig Opera (2001-2004) won him increasing renown for such parts as Wolfram, Schaunard, Ford, Posa and Germont. He has also performed at Bayerische Staatsoper, Staatsoper Dresden and the Savonlinna Opera Festival, and has given concerts throughout Europe and the USA. Projects in 2005 include Carmina Burana in Madrid, Paulus in Barcelona, Don Carlos in Cardiff and the War Requiem in Aalborg.
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