Nicole Lubinger is the big winner of the fourth operetta competition at the Anton Bruckner Private University (ABPU) in Linz. On Sunday evening in the impressively filled Great Hall of the institution, the 31-year-old soprano won from among 13 singers not only the victory of the prominent jury (3000 euros from Oberösterreichische Versicherung), but also that of the OÖN audience rating, and she was also honored by the Stage away engaged for productions in Baden and the Lehár Festival in Bad Ischl. It was already clear before the final that the Carinthian would sing Hanna in Lehár’s “The Merry Widow” in Bad Hall (www.stadttheater-badhall.com) from July 2 this year. A total of seven of the 13 finalists can be seen there, directed by Diethmar Straßer.
It was a performance show of impressive quality by the students of Robert Holzer (Institute Director for Singing and Music Theater). The fact that the evening, with a total of almost three hours, was not a minute too long was due on the one hand to the wide range of performances of the musical genres: from Johann Strauss to Franz Lehár, from the Wienerlied to Franz Schubert and Leonhard Bernstein to Jacques Offenbach and Ruperto Chapí y Lorentes Zarzuelas. In addition, Bruckner University professor Thomas Kerbl led through the evening in such an enjoyable and musically sound manner (he played all 26 arias on the piano), after which the event redeemed with great ease what operetta stands for: maximum musicality, embedded in tongue-in-cheek, cheeky, socially relevant like moving substances.
For example, when Lubinger yodelled Hans Bartl’s “Nur fest Dudln” while lying down, or when the Iranian baritone Navid Taheri, in whose homeland musical theater is forbidden, performed Tassilo’s aria “Komm Zigany, play me something” from Kálmán’s “Gräfin Mariza” in a stirring manner, then the audience opened up hearts and musical boundaries.
Volksoper chief dramaturge Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz – with Ischl director Thomas Enzinger, stage Baden boss Michael Lakner, Landestheater director Hermann Schneider and agency boss Ariane Hollaender-Calix in the jury – didn’t want to let the talent go without to praise their enormous level as well as the diversity of the evening.
There is no danger in prophesying a great future for second-placed Viktoria Liashkevich (2000 euros). The Belarusian, who performed Lehár’s “Vilja-Lied” enchantingly, will alternate with Lubinger in Hanna in Bad Hall. In addition, the soprano got a contract with the Linzer Landestheater. Tina Josephine Jaeger from Switzerland came third (1000 euros) and was rewarded with an engagement in Bad Ischl. With these young talents, the future of operetta is in the best of hands.
Source: Nachrichten
