Author:
No.1/2024
of opera charm magazineINTRODUCTION
Julie Roset, First Prize winner at Operalia 2023, is one of the finest coloratura sopranos of her generation. Julie Roset began her vocal studies at an early age joining the Conservatoire du Grand Avignon going on to graduate with honors from the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève in 2019 and she was awarded her artist diploma in Opera Studies from the Juilliard School in 2022. Her singing activity was wonderful since her beginnings due to her hard-working and dedicated spirit. She has a beautiful presence on the stage both vocally and artisticaly. Stephano Park, First Prize winner at Operalia 2023, is a young bass from South Korea. He is a member of the Wiener Staatsoper Opernstudio for the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 seasons. Stephano studied at the most prestigious university in South Korea, Seoul National University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in classical vocal study. Now, he is studying for a Master’s at Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien. The First Prize winners of Operalia 2023, Julie Roset and Stephano Park, in a lovely and inpsiring interview by Alice Lechner, told us about their thrilling experience in the Operalia Competition, how their life changed after winning Operalia, they told us about their future plans, about their voice’s repertoire and many more interesting and full of inspiration opinions and stories about the opera universe and about an artist’s life.
BIOGRAPHY
As the First Prize winner at Operalia 2023 and Grand Winner of the 2022 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Julie Roset has quickly established herself as one of the finest coloratura sopranos of her generation. Her performances as Zémire (Zémire et Azor) last season at Opéra Comique garnered unanimous acclaim, Le Figaro writing “The young soprano catches the light with her singing as natural as it is intelligent”. Performance highlights of Roset’s 2023/24 season include her debut at Opéra de Paris as Amour in a new staging by David McVicar of Charpentier’s Médée under William Christie, a European concert tour of Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Ensemble Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon, a curated programme of baroque arias entitled Elemental with ensemble Twelfth Night at Carnegie Hall, and a staged version of Die Schöpfung at Opéra de Lorraine with Music Director Marta Gardolińska. Already making her mark on the operatic landscape, Julie Roset recently appeared at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence as both Valletto and Amore in Ted Huffmann’s inspired staging of L’incoronazione di Poppea under the baton of Leonardo García Alarcón, joined Sasha Waltz & Guests acclaimed production of L’Orfeo at Teatro Real Madrid as Euridice and La Musica, and sang Amore in L’incoronazione di Poppea at Opéra du Rhin under Raphaël Pichon. Roset made her Paris debut as Amour in Mondonville’s Titon & l’Aurore with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie at Opéra Comique, sang Papagena in Die Zauberflöte at Opéra de Toulon, joined Les Arts Florissants and Paul Agnew as Amour in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice at the Philharmonie de Paris and, at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, sang Clorinde in Il Combattimento, la théorie du cygne noir, a musical journey through the Italian baroque conducted by Sebastien Daucé. As a concert performer, Julie Roset is in high demand with recent debuts including concert performances of Il re pastore at the Salzburg Festival with Mozarteum Orchestra conducted by Adam Fischer, Christmas Oratorio with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under Ottavio Dantone, Haydn’s La Création with Julie Chauvin and Le Concert de la Loge at Festival de Saint-Denis and Acis and Galatea with l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Alarcón. Julie Roset has formed strong connections with several ensembles including Leonardo Garcia Alarcón’s Cappella Mediterranea with whom her performances include Sacrati’s La Finta Pazza at Concertgebouw Amsterdam and, during her residency at the Aix Académie, she joined Ensemble Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon for a programme of Mozart and contemporaries and she appeared as the Philistine Woman in Handel’s Samson with CAV&MA’s Millenium Orchestra at the Beaune and Namur Festivals. On disc, Julie Roset can be heard in her solo recording of works by Handel entitled Salve Regina, with Millenium Orchestra and released on the Ricercar label. Other recent recordings include Sigismondo d’India’s Lamenti e Sospiri with Capella Mediterranea on Ricercar, Brabant with Holland Baroque released on Pentatone, and Dido and Aeneas with Les Argonauts released on the Aparté label. Julie Roset began her vocal studies at an early age joining the Conservatoire du Grand Avignon going on to graduate with honors from the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève in 2019 and she was awarded her artist diploma in Opera Studies from the Juilliard School in 2022.
Stephano Park is a young bass from South Korea. He is a member of the Wiener Staatsoper Opernstudio for the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 seasons. Stephano studied at the most prestigious university in South Korea, Seoul National University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in classical vocal study. Now, he is studying for a Master’s at Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien. He studied with Attila Jun and is currently studying with Jennifer Larmore and Karlheinz Hanser. In Korea, he has received many awards from nationally acclaimed Competitions. In 2019, he participated in the 31st SNU Annual Opera, Puccini’s Il Tabarro in the role of Talpa, as well as in the role of Simone in Gianni Schicchi, conducted by Yun-Sung Chang with SNU Philharmonic Orchestra at the SNU Cultural Center Grand Theater. Stephano started to perform on the international stage in 2021 as the finalist of the 39th International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition in Erfurt, Germany. In the 2022/2023 season, he appeared at Wiener Staatsoper in roles including the Second Soldier in Salome and Fouquier-Tinville in Andrea Chénier, and he also covered the role of Fasolt in Das Rheingold. In August 2023, he performed Ramfis in Aida at the Oper Burg Gars Summer Festival in Austria. He won the 1st Prize at the 30th Plácido Domingo Operalia, The World Opera Competition in Cape Town, South Africa. In the 2023/2024 season, he will perform 2 Geharnischter in Die Zauberflöte and Sid in La Fanciulla del West and Lodovico in Otello, and also Hans Schwarz in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
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INTERVIEW
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Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.
Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.
Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.
She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.
Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.
Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.
Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.
His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.
During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.
He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.
Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.
She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.
She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.
Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.
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