Eight extraordinarily talented young singers, who are already making their voices heard in the lofty world of international opera, brought the audience to its feet at the thrilling conclusion of the Vero Beach Opera Rising Stars 2023 Finals Concert at the Vero Beach High School Performing Arts Center.
Before the winners were announced, each singer had performed a selection of their choosing, thrilling the rapt listeners and filling the auditorium with the splendor of the human voice at its most awe-inspiring.
As in previous years, the Kleinschmidt Family Foundation graciously provided the competition’s top prizes of $10,000, $5,000 and $3,000.
This year’s First Prize winner was Cuban-born Eleomar Cuello, an exciting young baritone who movingly delivered the anguished aria, ‘Ah, per sempre … Bel sogno beato’ from Vincenzo Bellini’s “I Puritani,” a tale of romance, heartache and violence set during the English Civil War. In addition to an immensely compelling voice, Cuello commands the stage with dramatic control, an appealing stage presence, and the ability to give every note, every phrase, its due.
Cuello has extensive international stage experience, performing at major theaters in Cuba, Nicaragua, Chile, Spain, France and South Korea. Last season, Cuello performed as Alcindoro in Vero Beach Opera’s production of “La Bohème,” and more recently as one of four singers who treated residents of Windsor, a VBO partner in supporting young artists, to a presentation of “Broadway Meets Opera,” featuring Andrew Lloyd Webber showstoppers and opera favorites.
Only weeks ago, Cuello was First Place winner in the Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious Laffont Competition, Southeast Region, and will head to New York City to compete on April 17 in the National Semifinals at the Met. The notable competition is where many internationally renowned opera singers, the great American soprano Renee Fleming among them, got their start.
Second Place went to Chattanooga native Chelsea Lehnea, a 2016 alumna of the Sante Fe Opera’s Apprentice Singer program. Already a multi-award winner, the exciting young soprano is known for her “fearless personality, powerful artistry and unique sense of style,” with a voice described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “an excellent combination of tenderness and vocal power.”
On the VBO stage, “all of the above” took the audience’s collective breath away, as Lehnea delivered warrior Odabella’s bad-ass aria ‘Santo di Patria’ from Giuseppe Verdi’s lyric drama “Attila,” wowing in shimmery silver-and-black, with an icy white pixie haircut, dramatic dark eyes and a ferociously brilliant vocal and dramatic ability that more than matched her eye-catching physicality.
Awarded Third Place was tenor Joshua Wheeker, a Dayton, Ohio, native now living in the Chicago area. Wheeker holds a BA in music from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and is a graduate of the Los Angeles Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist program.
Radiating a congenial and approachable charisma, and voice critics have noted for its “warmth and clarity,” Wheeker has performed many of opera’s leading male roles, including Nemorino in “L’Elisir d’Amore,” Don Ottavio in “Don Giovanni,” the Duke of Mantua in “Rigoletto” and others. On the VBO stage, Wheeker brought a clear, precise sensitivity to the role of Des Grieux, the gifted preacher in one of Jules Massenet’s great tenor arias, ‘Ah! Fuyez douce image,’ from “Manon.”
Tenor Matthew Cairns won the $3,000 Sergio Franchi Memorial Award as well as an Encouragement Award from the Louis L. Lawson Legacy Fund. A 2022 Grand Finals winner in the Met’s Laffont National Opera Competition, Cairns is currently part of the Met’s Young Artists program.
Also receiving $1,000 Encouragement Awards were soprano Rachel Blaustein, from the Windsor Foundation; soprano Shaina Martinez, from Tommy and Simonetta Steyer; soprano Esther Tonea, in Memory of Sofia Blanchard; and bass-baritone Le Bu, in Memory of Sofia Blanchard. As a 2022 Laffont winner, Le Bu is in his first year in the Met’s Young Artists program.
The evening’s accompanist, collaborative pianist Anna Fateeva, has performed with such luminaries as Renée Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and is an active member of the nonprofit Young Patronesses of Opera, generous supporters of Vero Beach Opera, according to VBO president Joan Ortega-Cowan.
How, with eight spectacularly gifted young singers, are the winners chosen? And by whom?
The 2023 Rising Stars jury included five individuals whose collective experience, depth of knowledge and attention to detail qualify them well for the daunting task: jury president, VBO artistic advisor Roman Ortega-Cowan, and jurists Gregory Buchalter, music director and conductor of the Varne International and Metropolitan Opera assistant conductor; Eva Franchi, founder of the Sergio Franchi Music Foundation; Susan Neves, Metropolitan Opera singer; and Randall Romig, Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Southeast Region chairman.
“VBO now invites young, aspiring singers who have already won a significant number of competitions, awards. In essence, serious, dedicated young artists pursuing a real opera singing career,” says Ortega-Cowen.
VBO stages its competitions as a two-tier audition, semifinals and finals, with each singer asked to prepare five arias. In the semifinals, each performed one of their choices, and a second chosen by the judges. On the second day, finals, each performed two more arias, and the judges reached, but did not disclose, their final decisions, which were announced at the Friday evening concert.
Criteria concentrates, Ortega-Cowan explains, on six disciplines: the competitor’s presence (demeanor, grooming, poise), personality, technique (control of voice, overall physicality), musicality (pitch, intonation, rhythm), phrasing/diction (precise, clear delivery, in sync with music).
The sixth discipline, interpretation, says Ortega-Cowan, is “the splitting hairs moment when judges compare the true understanding and delivering of a title to the audience.
Most judges prefer that singers present the work as written by the author, taking liberties only as notated in the original form. The true impersonation of a character is extremely important in this interpretation context. A charismatic singer, gifted with dramatic ability, technical know-how and vocal stamina, has an edge in today’s performing environment.”
How does a young singer choose such a path? Chelsea Lehnea provided some thoughtful insight.
She began singing in church at age 3, then chose opera as a college sophomore, with encouragement from her first voice teacher, when playing Susanna in a school production of Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro.”
“I fell in love with the art form. Ever since, opera has become my passion. The experience of painting time with the human voice, matched with all the colors of an orchestra, it thrills my soul like nothing else can. My favorite role so far has been the fiery Musetta in Puccini’s classic ‘La Bohème.’”
She lists her dream characters as the title roles in “Lucia di Lammermoor,” “Maria Stuarda,” “Tosca” and “Thaïs.”
Asked how she prepares herself for the moment she takes the stage, she shares a thoughtful and endearing scenario.
“I start the day with a soft morning, complete with a delicious breakfast and kitty cuddles.
Before I sing a note, I like to warm up my entire body with either yoga or a long walk. I fuel up with a continuous stream of La Croix, iced coffee and potatoes. When it’s time to take the stage, I take a moment of gratitude – gratitude for the music, gratitude for the present moment, and gratitude for the experience of live theater, where we thrive as communities.”
For more information, visit VeroBeachOpera.org.
Photos by Joshua Kodis
