Competition draws 166 contestants from 24 countries
This year’s “Hariclea Darclee” International Canto Festival and Contest and will run at Braila, August 1-12, Mediafax reports. The competition for the best voice attracted 166 contestants from 24 countries including Romania, Republic of Moldova, Armenia, Brazil, Canada, China, South Korea, Croatia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, the United States of America, Turkey and Ukraine. This year’s edition includes an anniversary event dedicated to Romanian baritone Nicolae Herlea – a conference lectured by Dr. Stephan Poen, entitled “Nicolae Herlea – 85th anniversary celebration”, accompanied by video projections of arias performed by the great baritone who, too, is present, as always, at the Darclee Festival and Contest. The opening Aug 1 will be followed by the inaugural concert performed by soprano Romanian Edith Borsos, laureate of the Grand Prix Darclee 2010, which she won alongside Spanish baritone Alvaro Lozano. Together with laureates of other previous editions of the festival, she could be heard performing at the Verdi – Wagner celebration and in Verdi’s masterpiece “The Troubadour / Il Trovatore”, under the baton of maestro Marco Balderi, events hat celebrate the genius of Verdi and Wagner respectively, given their forthcoming 200th anniversary. The works to be performed were mostly picked from operas once sung by Hariclea Darclee. Marco Balderi, a constant collaborator of the Braila festival, will also conduct the Choir of the “George Enescu” Philharmonic and the Darclee Festival Orchestra in the final audience-attended stage of the contest, as well as the “Verdi-Wagner” extraordinary concert on the Danube Esplanade and the gala laureate concert on August 12. The first edition of the International Contest was held in 1997 and became a biennale event ever since, alternating with Master Classes.
