THE 8-th INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF
OPERATIC SINGERS
“MARIE KRAJA”
7, 8 and 9 November 2007
Tirana, Albania
About
the Festival.
The International Festival of Opera Singers “Marie Kraja” is one of the most important international and cultural events in Albania. It has been convened already six times: 1_st Festival (January 1999); 2_nd Festival (June 2000); 3_d Festival (April 2001), 4_th Festival (April 2002), 5_th Festival (April 2003), 6_th Festival (October 2004), 7_th Festival (October 2005). It has already become an established tradition, bringing opera singers from 5 continents together with personalities from the world of opera, as well as managers, agents and impresarios.
The 8-th Festival is to be presented as a TV Spectacle, focusing not only on the competition for the international opera singers, but also on the spectacular content enriched by special guest artists, such as other singers, ballet groups and instrumentalists. This entire Festival is broadcast LIVE on two of the most important Albanian National Television channels. The Festival is supported by the Municipality of Tirana and other public and private organizations. The Festival is already member of of the international organization "Opera Europa" based in Brussels, and will soon become a member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions based in Geneva.
Conditions of Entry. ·
The Festival
is open to singers from all countries that are under the age of 35 years old.
·
The Festival is preceded by a selection process called Phase 1. The applicants are required during this Phase to bring a cassette or a CD, which has 4 arias sung by them. ·
The
maximum number of singers who will be qualified to the Festival is 20. ·
Immediately after the audition, all candidates will be notified about the results. The qualified candidates will inform the organizers about the arias they wish to perform in the Festival, in order of their preference, and the organizers of the Festival will make the final selection. ·
Each singer will perform in the Festival 2 contrasting arias with orchestra. The maximum duration of the 2 arias together will have to be about 10 minutes. ·
Singers will be divided at random into 2 groups of 10. The first group will sing both their arias (through not consecutively) on Wednesday, November 7, and the second group on Thursday, November 8. ·
The
order of apperance will be chosen at random. ·
10 finalists will then be chosen by the Jury to perform one of their arias in the third evening, Friday, November 9. At the end of the third evening, the Jury will choose the 3 Prizes Winners. The Symphony Orchestra will accompany the singers in all the three concerts. ·
Candidates must arrive in Tirana no later than Monday, November 5. The organizers of the Festival will bear travel and accomodation costs. Each singer will have a 30 minute piano rehearsal with the conductor, a 20 minute with orchestra, and a General Rehearsal. Prices. The Prices of THE
7-th International Festival of Operatic Singers “Marie Kraja”
will be as follows: ·
First Price, “Marie Kraja” with a value of 5,
000 US dollars. ·
Second Price with a value of 4,
000 US dollars. ·
Third Price with a value of 3,
000 US dollars. Jury. ·
The Jury
will be composed by both international and national members. The ballot of
the Jury is secret and its decisions are final. ·
The Jury
will judge each Singer based on the system of points: from 0 to 10
points. ·
After the Second Evening, Jury will meet to make its judgement for each singer
who was presented during the First and the Second Evenings. Each member of the
Jury presents his/her classification of the Singers based on his/her own judgement. The top 10 singers will be the finalists who will perform on the third evening. ·
The writen classification of each member of the Jury has to be archived as a document. ·
The
announcement on the 10 finalists will be made on Friday, November 9 at 11.00 a.m. ·
The 10 finalists will perform their aria during the first half of the Third Concert, after which the Jury will meet to make their final judgment. Whilst the Jury is meeting, the second half of the concert will be the Festival’s Spectacular Show. ·
The announcement of the Prize Winners will be made at the end of the concert. The Jury Members: 1. Mr. Claudio Buchler, conductor, Opera of Insbruck, (Austria)
2. Ms. Giovanna Lomazzi, Vice President of ASLICO, Italy
3. Ms. Inva Mula, soprano, France
4. Mr. Kim von Binzer, Director of the Royal Opera Academy, Copenhagen
5. Mr. Martin Andre, Conductor, England
6. Mr. Menno Feenstea, Artistic Director of the Royal Swedish Opera, Stockholm
7. Ms. Nancy Rhodes, Director of the Encompass New Opera, New York
8. Mr. Philip Boswell, Artistic Director of the Opera Toronto, Canada
9. Mr. Suad Arican, Artistic Director of the Opera Izmir, Turkey
10. Mr. Sven Muller, Director of the Grazer Opera, (Austria)