During the month of June, was held the 8th edition of the Blue Danube Opera Conducting Competition, in the city of Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. After being postponed to 2021 because of the Covid pandemic, the competition finally took place with the repertoire planned and no changes in the regular format of the competition over the years.
The competition was a difficult and challenging marathon going over two weeks of work in and out from the pit, while asking very different aspect of techniques from the participants. Rehearsing the orchestra alone, the choir alone, rehearsal of orchestra with singers and general rehearsals with costume and acting, run throughs of scenes and arias from the operas in the repertoire.
The repertoire for this competition was diverse and challenging:
MOZART : Don Giovanni (Round I)
BIZET : Carmen (Round I & II)
LEONCAVALLO : Pagliacci (Round II)
BARTOK : Bluebeard’s Castle (Finals)
To the competition arrived 35 participants of the original 52 due to last minute cancellations in reason of the pandemic. Gaddiel reherased in the 1st round in Don Giovanni with singers: the trio from Act II as well as the Canzonetta and Zerlina’s “Vedrai Carino”. In the evening Gaddiel ran through Carmen, act I’s Seguedille until Escamillo’s famous Toreador aria.
Passing to the 2nd round, Gaddiel conducted different part of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and was happy to have been announced as one of the finalists.
In the finals, all 6 participants were asked to rehearse free of choice parts from Bartok’s Blubeard’s Castle. The next day each had 60 minutes to make a run through of the whole Opera in the pit which required the conductors to be as clear as possible, and without doing any mistake, keep the flow of the Opera and create a special moment of music with the orchestra and singers. This made it a challenging task to show all the nuances to the orchestra, giving the cues to the singers during this very challenging Opera, with meter and tempo changes almost every other bar.
At the end of the competition Gaddiel was announced as the 3rd prize winner of this 8th edition, together with great colleagues Julia Cruz Carceller receiving the 2nd prize and Michael Englebrecht receiving the 1st prize.
At the end of this competition, a Gala concert took place at the Opera house of Stara Zagora, with the winners conducting various arias, scenes and orchestra parts of the Operas from the competition.
The 3rd prize for Gaddiel means as well 2 engagements with different Opera houses in Europe for the coming season. More about this TBA.
