September 04, 2024
39 opera talents from 19 countries will travel to Gütersloh to showcase their talents in the finals of the International Singing Competition NEUE STIMMEN 2024 in Gütersloh. From October 5 to 11, they will have a unique opportunity to convince opera and festival directors, agents, and talent scouts from the music industry of their skills and personalities. The highlight of the finals, as in the previous 20 competitions of NEUE STIMMEN, is the grand final concert with orchestral accompaniment by the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Jonathan Darlington on Friday, October 11 at 7:00 PM in front of an audience at the Gütersloh Stadthalle.
“We have discovered young and promising opera talents from many different cultures and nations. In the finals of NEUE STIMMEN, they not only compete with each other but also develop artistically and personally. With the competition, we offer a renowned springboard for international opera careers,” says Liz Mohn, founder of the competition and chairwoman of the Liz Mohn Stiftung. This year, singers from China (six) and the USA (four) are particularly well represented. The only singer born in Germany to make it through the international competition in 2024 is 25-year-old Marlene Metzger. Raised in a musical household in Berlin, the young soprano now works and lives in Copenhagen. Whether she will win one of the prizes or special awards, totaling 66,000 euros, will be revealed in October. The audience will also have a say again, voting actively in the final to decide who will receive the Audience Award 2024.
Opera for Everyone!
As in previous competitions, there is the opportunity to follow both the finals and the semifinals (with piano accompaniment) via livestream. The semifinals will be available on the website www.neue-stimmen.de. The final will be broadcast live by the opera streaming platform OperaVision (www.operavision.eu/en). Those who cannot watch live can listen to the final concert on Deutschlandradio on October 20 at 8:05 PM or watch it later on YouTube. Social media users can also gain numerous impressions of the talents and behind-the-scenes activities through the NEUE STIMMEN Instagram channel. This way, the Liz Mohn Stiftung aims to make opera accessible to as many people as possible. Participation remains a heartfelt concern for competition founder Liz Mohn: “It is important to enable as many people as possible to access music. Neither age nor social or cultural background should play a role. Experiencing music together connects us. Culture has the power to build bridges of understanding.”
Renowned opera singer Ricarda Merbeth joins the NEUE STIMMEN jury
The renowned, ten-member jury chaired by Dominique Meyer, director of La Scala in Milan, welcomes a new member: German soprano and former NEUE STIMMEN participant (1991) Ricarda Merbeth, a renowned singer and internationally sought-after interpreter of Wagner and Strauss, joins the NEUE STIMMEN panel. The jury will decide which young talents will advance in Gütersloh.
Brian Dickie, former general director of the Chicago Opera Theater, Sophie Joyce, casting director of the Opéra National de Paris, Evamaria Wieser, casting director of the Salzburg Festival, Bernd Loebe, director of the Frankfurt Opera, and Samuel Gelber, head of artistic planning and operations at the Washington National Opera in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, have already served as jurors in the international preliminary rounds. Joining them in the finals are Christoph Seuferle, opera director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Elisabeth Sobotka, director of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, and Sophie de Lint, director of the Dutch National Opera. As in previous competitions, the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Jonathan Darlington will provide musical accompaniment for the finals.
NEUE STIMMEN and the ‘Future of Opera’: Introducing a Junior Jury and Advancing Technical Innovations
This year, NEUE STIMMEN is not only searching worldwide for successful singers of the next opera generation. The Liz Mohn Stiftung aims to actively shape the ‘Future of Opera’ with two new projects:
For the first time, the 2024 competition will feature a Junior Jury. Up to 15 young people aged 16 to 18 will award their own prize of 500 euros in the semifinals. The criteria for the award will be determined by the young jurors themselves. This, along with discounted tickets for students (from 6.50 euros), aims to inspire cross-generational enthusiasm for opera and reflect what is relevant for the next generation of audiences both on and off the stage.
With the 2023 masterclass, the topic of Virtual Reality has entered the world of NEUE STIMMEN. Selected NEUE STIMMEN singers were trained last year in cooperation with the Staatstheater Augsburg, the leading theater in digital music theater productions, to produce so-called “Mixed Reality” operas. Interested individuals can experience what it looks like when topics such as “3D sound,” “singing in the metaverse,” and “360-degree video recordings” come to life in a virtual reality headset on Friday, October 11, from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. A VR lounge will be set up in the Stadthalle simultaneously with the publicly accessible final rehearsal. Visitors can put on VR headsets and take a look at digital productions.
