Mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo has won the Cesti Competition at Innsbruck Festival of Early Music. The 22-year-old Canadian was awarded €4,000, as well as the €1,000 audience prize.
Second place in the event went to Italian mezzo-soprano Eléonore Pancrazi, who collected €3,000, with fellow Italian Giulia Bolcato coming in third and winning €2,000.
In the final D’Angelo impressed the jury and audience with her passionate performances of pieces by Francesco Cavalli and Handel. The jury was chaired by opera director Michael Fichtenholz, and also included Alessandro De Marchi (director of Innsbruck Festival), Clemens Birnbaum (intendant, Handel Festival), Jochen Breiholz (artistic director of Theater an der Wien), Peter de Caluwe (intendant at Opera Brussels) and Heribert Germeshausen (director of Heidelberg Theatre & Orchestra).
“We have experienced the future of baroque opera today,” said Fichtenholz “The consistently high level of all the finalists made the decision incredibly difficult for us. In the end, however, we were able to select a well-deserved winner.”
In total, 170 young singers from 39 nations applied to take part in the annual competition, which held its first edition in 2010. More than 4,600 spectators watched the final concert via Livestream.