2012 OPERA NEWS Awards Honorees Announced

Sopranos Mirella Freni and Dawn Upshaw, countertenor David Daniels, baritone Simon Keenlyside, and bass-baritone Eric Owens to Receive 2012 OPERA NEWS Awards

The editors of OPERA NEWS are pleased to announce the honorees for the 2012 OPERA NEWS Awards, paying tribute to five superb artists who have made an invaluable contribution to the art form: sopranos Mirella Freni and Dawn Upshaw, countertenor David Daniels, baritone Simon Keenlyside, and bass-baritone Eric Owens. The eighth annual OPERA NEWS Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, April 21 at The Plaza in New York City. All the winners — and a host of the city’s cultural, civic, and social luminaries — will be present at the gala awards dinner, which will feature celebrity presenters speaking about the awardees and introducing video performance clips.

The official announcement of this year’s honorees appears in the September 2012 issue of OPERA NEWS, which is available on August 6 and has Piotr Beczala on the cover. The Polish tenor performs this season at the Metropolitan Opera in Gounod’s Faust — his company role debut as the opera’s title — and in a new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto. The September issue also offers the magazine’s annual preview of the year in opera. The April 2012 issue of OPERA NEWS will contain tributes to the five awardees, all distinguished members of the international opera community.

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Managing Editor Oussama Zahr extols the gifts of Mr. Owens:

“Bass-baritone Eric Owens has a soulful, capacious voice that he uses to imbue some of opera’s most mysterious and villainous characters with startling humanity. Everything he sings glows with his integrity as an artist.”