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Homepage • Festival • News • 16th Cesti Competiti...

16th Cesti Competition at the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik ends with a spectacular final concert

DSC_0471 Kopie
Tenor Salvador Simão takes home first prize

The first prize went to tenor Salvador Simão from Portugal, who prevailed against strong international competition with his convincing performance. The second prize was awarded to mezzo-soprano Magdalena Hinz from Germany and the third prize to baritone Pierre Gennaï from France. The audience agreed with the jury and awarded the audience prize to the winner, Salvador Simão. Third-placed Pierre Gennaï was also awarded the Young Talent Prize, impressively demonstrating that the future of baroque opera is in good hands.

A total of 206 participants from 39 nations registered for this year's Cesti Competition. 98 of them travelled to Innsbruck at the beginning of the week to compete. On Sunday, 31 August, 10 finalists finally demonstrated their skills in the grand finale – in front of a packed hall. In addition to the enthusiastic audience at the Haus der Musik Innsbruck, several thousand viewers also watched the final concert via livestream.
In the final's compulsory programme, the singers presented, among others, an aria from George Frideric Handel's opera ‘Atalanta’, which will be the Barockoper:Jung next year. The cast will be assembled from all rounds of the Cesti Competition.

Baritone Jonathan Eyers from New Zealand also impressed and secured an engagement with Il Gusto Barocco and Jörg Halubek. Participation in the 2025 Festwochen Masterclass with Anna Bonitatibus was awarded to five other participants from the first and second rounds of the competition. In addition, jury and audience favourite Salvador Simão won an engagement with Resonanzen Wien, and soprano Lila Dufy from France won an engagement with the Potsdam-Sanssouci Music Festival.

The jury, chaired by Sebastian Schwarz, consisted of the following members: Ottavio Dantone (Musical Director of the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik), opera singer Anna Bonitatibus, Francesco Corti (Musical Director at the Drottningholm Palace Theatre), Nathan Morrison (Director of Voice and Opera at Intermusica Artists' Management), Franziska M. Kaiser (Casting Director at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden) and Jean Denes (Opera Director at the Theater Basel).

This grand finale of the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik attracts young singing talents from all over the world every year. The competition, named after the Italian composer Pietro Antonio Cesti, who made Innsbruck a centre of Italian opera north of the Alps in the 17th century, is one of the most important singing competitions in this field of music. The announcement of the winners marked not only the end of the competition, but also the end of this year's Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik.

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