Cindy Bailey Photo
Left to right: Michael Spaziani, Ryan Burns, Candice Edwards, Alan Mann, Bernadetta Cordaro, Elizabeth Kinder, and Christina DiMuro
The Clinton-based Opera Theater of Connecticut has announced the winners of the organization’s biannual Amici Vocal Competition, which was held on May 12. Baritone Michael Spaziani won a $250 first prize in the student division, and tenor Christopher Lucier won a $500 first-place award in the young professionals category.
According to a press release issued by the Opera Theater of Connecticut, “two special ($100) awards were also conferred: soprano Bernadetta Cordaro was given the William Calvert Encouragement Award and Claudia Rosenthal was presented with the Galli-Campi Award for most promising coloratura.”
“Christopher showed a great amount of potential,” Alan Mann, Opera Theater of Connecticut’s artistic director, said of Lucier, a Brooklyn, Conn.-based graduate of Boston University and the Manhattan School of Music. “Dynamic, young tenors (like Lucier) really have open roads ahead of them … more so than other voices.”
Lucier sang “En fermant les yeux” from Massenet’s Manon and “Il mio tesoro” from Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the May 12 competition.
Mann said Spaziani, a Bloomfield resident who studies at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School, “combined very, very good … quality of voice, very strong technique, and excellent interpretation — getting his emotional and musical points across to the audience.”
Spaziani performed “Ô vin, dissipe la tristesse” from Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet and “Vedro, mentr’io sospiro” (“Count’s Aria”) from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro.
Cindy Bailey Photo
Left to right: Claudia Rosenthal, Christopher Lucier, Alan Mann, and Karolina Wojteczko
Applicants 18 and older who are “presently residing in Connecticut or attending a Connecticut school, matriculating (undergraduate and graduate) music students … (and those pursuing) private study” are eligible to compete as students, according to competition guidelines, which indicate that vocalists between the ages of 25 and 40 who are “Connecticut residents or have resided in the state within the last three years (and) may be (pursuing a) doctorate in music” are eligible to compete in the young professionals division.
According to Opera Theater of Connecticut’s press release, the Amici Vocal Competition “is the only vocal competition in the state specifically for Connecticut singers and students.”
In the student division, baritone Ryan Burns and soprano Candice Edwards received second- and third-place awards, respectively, and sopranos Christina DiMuro and Elizabeth Kinder earned honorable mentions.
Second- and third-place awards in the young professionals category were given to baritone Luke Scott and coloratura soprano Claudia Rosenthal, and honorable mentions were awarded to mezzo soprano Karolina Wojteczko and tenor Joshua May.