Bampton Classical Opera's Young Singers Competition

Emma Stannard as Ruggiero in Royal Academy Opera's Alcina
(photo Robert Workman)

Bampton Classical Opera's 2017 Young Singers Competition reached its finals last Sunday, 19 November 2017, at the Holywell Music Room in Oxford, when the winner was announced as being mezzo-soprano Emma Stannard, and with tenor Wagner Moreira as the runner up. A new prize, accompanists’ prize, went to pianist Keval Shah.

The competition, which is biennial, was launched in 2013 for the company's 20th anniversary and is intended to identifying the finest emerging singers currently studying or working in the UK. 58 young singers aged between 21 and 32 entered year and six singers reached the final in the Holywell Music Room: Corinne Cowling (soprano), Kamilla Dunstan (mezzo-soprano), Wagner Moreira (tenor), Emma Stannard (mezzo-soprano), Samuel Pantcheff (baritone) and Olivia Warburton (mezzo-soprano). The adjudicators were British singers Bonaventura Bottone and Jean Rigby. and Conductor and accompanist from the Royal Opera House, Paul Wynne Griffiths, was an additional adjudicator in the preliminary rounds.

The winner, Emma Stannard’s programme accompanied by pianist Keval Shah included ‘Que fais tu blanche tourterelle’ from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Schumann's Belsatzar, Op.57, ‘Parto, parto’ from Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, ‘The Highland Balou’ from Britten’s Charm of Lullabies and ‘Polo’ from de Falla’s 7 canciones populares españolas. Emma has recently completed her studies with Royal Academy Opera where she sang Ruggiero in Alcina in October 2016 (see my review), and she was Minerva in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria at the Grange Festival (see my review)