The French-Nigerian soprano Omo Bello was a triple winner in the prestigious Paris
Opera Competition held recently in the French capital.
Omo Bello |
Bello won the
first prize and, in the women’s category, the French Opera of the 19th Century
award and the Public Prize at the contest, which was launched to “discover new
talents” and “to support and guide” the careers of young singers, according to
the organizers.
These are
just some of the latest honours for the Lagos-born singer. Bello, 29 years old
and based in Paris, first caused opera audiences to take notice when she won
the top prize in the 2010 Luciano Pavarotti Giovani competition in Vercelli,
Italy.
She followed
up that success with first place in the Anselmo Colzani international singing
competition in Budrio, Italy, in 2011, and in France received the Cziffra
Foundation grand prize for exceptionally talented young musicians.
Earlier this
month, she also travelled to Aix-en-Provence for the finals of the French
annual “Victoires de la musique classique” competition in which she had been
nominated in the "Révélation
lyrique de l'année" (revelation of the year) category. She didn’t win in
this event, but ended up giving a striking performance.
“These past
weeks have undoubtedly been the most eventful period of my career,” she told
SWAN. “I was home for a few days after making a debut in the role of Donna Anna
(from Mozart’s Don Giovanni) in mid-November, when I got a call from my agent
telling me I was nominated for the 2014 Victoires de la Musique.”
Bello receiving one of her three prizes. |
“In general,
I’m not a fan of singing competitions, but I was very interested in this one when
I realized that the jury was made up of well-known opera directors from Glyndebourne,
Geneva, Zurich, Brussels, Lyon, Bordeaux, Berlin etc.,” she said.
“I decided to
go for it, as this was a unique occasion to have so many of the opera-hiring
professionals all at once. It was extremely gratifying to walk away with not
one, but the three top prizes.”
Bello added
that the French opera prize was her “pride and joy” because of her Nigerian
origins. “This proves that I’m able to master the French lyric repertoire and
its subtleties,” she said.
That mastery
has been due to years of hard work, as her long-time teacher Jorge Chaminé
attests. “She is talented, totally dedicated to her craft and pushes herself to
achieve the maximum. I believe she will be one of the great singers of her
generation,” said Chaminé, a renowned Spanish-Portuguese baritone who lives in
France.
Johan Choi |
For an
earlier SWAN profile of Omo Bello, see:
http://southernworldartsnews.blogspot.fr/2011/11/nigerian-soprano-soars-in-europe.html
Other winners: Maria Kataeva (top) and Jamez McCorkle. Photos by E. Mercier, courtesy of the Paris Opera Competition. |