The “George Enescu” International Festival was nominated for the first time at the International Opera Awards 2020, in the context of the increasingly sustained promotion of the opera in its artistic program. The festival will support its nomination by presenting the jury the program dedicated to opera performed in the 2019 edition. The winners will be announced at the award ceremony held at the prestigious Sadler’s Wells in London on May 4, 2020.
In the same category, dedicated to festivals promoting opera performances, the famous Salzburg Festival was nominated, as well as other profile events such as Donizetti Opera Festival, Castell de Peralada Festival, Macerata Opera Festival and Opera FestivalO19 (Opera Philadelphia). Established in 2012, the International Opera Awards is an annual event that celebrates opera from all over the world.
“It is a great honor and joy that the “George Enescu” International Festival is recognized as a promoter of the opera, especially since this broader approach to the lyric works, owing to the artistic directions of Vladimir Jurowski, is already registered in a trend started in 2017, with a modern approach, through the use of multimedia technologies. This trend will continue, as the program of the 2021 edition of the Festival will present new opera performances.” said Mihai Constantinescu, the general director of the George Enescu Festival.
At the opening conference of the Festival in 2019, the artistic director of the Festival, maestro Vladimir Jurowski, emphasized that the program of the 2019 edition highlighted the concern for the world of opera, presenting a variety of masterpieces, from the greatest of the Baroque era to the elites of the musical theater of the 20th century.
“I believe that opera, more than any other art form, can bring together music and text, sound and vision, individual and global, to examine deeply and to explore those questions that try and define us all, as artists and as people. “(Vladimir Jurowski)
This tendency to promote opera began in 2017, with an innovative premiere: at the opening of the 2017 edition Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra presented Oedipe in concert version, for the first time with live multimedia screenings, under the artistic direction of Carmen Lidia Vidu.
At the 2019 edition of the Festival, there were 14 operas in concert, both works of the 20th century, as well as baroque or classical. Four of these were completed by multimedia creations and visual architecture, signed by Carmen Lidia Vidu, Nona Ciobanu and Peter Kosir.
The festival audience enjoyed three works in concert presented for the first time: Die Frau Ohne Schatten, by Strauss, in the interpretation of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Moses and Aaron, by Schönberg, in the interpretation of the George Enescu Philharmonic and Peter Grimes, by Britten – presented by the National Radio Orchestra. Also for the first time at the Enescu Festival, the audience listened to Jeanne d’Arc au Bucher, by Honegger, with the Orchestre National de Lille, Bluebeard’s Castle, by Bartok, in the interpretation of the Polish National Radio Orchestra, conducted by Cristian Mandeal. In addition, the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège performed La Voix Humaine by Poulenc, on the stage of the Enescu Festival and the Basel Chamber Orchestra presented Don Giovanni, by Mozart.
The admirers of the lyrical genre had the opportunity to listen to the special interpretations of an entire gallery of soloists. Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato, Sir Bryn Terfel, Marlis Petersen, Rolando Villazon stepped onto the Festival stage in recitals and performances in format of opera in concert or in special concerts. Notable maestros such as Vladimir Jurowski, Giovanni Antonini and René Jacobs conducted these performances.
Other nominees include Lise Davidsen, Sir Bryn Terfel and Kirill Petrenko, all present at the “George Enescu” International Festival in 2019, Romanians Adela Zaharia and George Petean, as well as the bassist René Pape, who also participated in the previous editions of the festival.
Also, the opera in concert “Leonora”, a story about love, personal sacrifice and heroism signed by L.v. Beethoven, performed at the Festival, was nominated in the Recording (Complete Opera) category.
