The I. International Eva Marton Singing Competition was organized in Budapest under the name of Eva Marton, the Artist of the Hungarian Nation, a Kossuth and Bartók–Pásztory prize winner, an owner of Corvin Chain Award, a honorary member and Kammersängerin of Wiener Staatsoper, a professor emerita of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, a great diva of international opera stages. She is the chair of Section of Theatre Arts of Hungarian Academy of Arts. In this interview she talks about her experiences about the competition and her plans for the future.
– I think there has never been such a great international singing competition under your name in Budapest. How has this competition been realized?
– In former times there was Erkel singing competition. I think there wasn’t similar competition in the past few years. I know about the József Simándy Singing Competition in Szeged, which is organized twoyearly. This competition was my old dream, which has been realized now at long
last. I would like to organize it in my alma mater, the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. Dr. Andrea Vígh, the rector undertook the competition with pleasure. In the Franz Liszt Academy of Music the quarterfinals and the semifinals were in the Sir Georg Solti Chamber Hall and the final was in the
Great Hall, where the young singers sang with orchestra, the the MÁV Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Ádám Medveczky (the full member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts). The final gala was at the Hungarian State Opera on 21 September, on Saturday. I feel that the competition
and the two concerts turned out well and met with a warm response, too.
– Let’s talk about your feelings...
– I am tired, but happy. I hope it will continue. I would like to organize this competition every two years, because the wide international attendance has justified us and it could enhance our reputation all over the world in the field of music.
– Why does this competition important for you?
– I participated in numerous competitions as jury member or jury president. I often joined after some rounds. This is my first own competition, so I could participate in the organization from the very beginning. I felt that it was a hard task, because the renewed building opened last year, in October 2013 and this was the starting point of the organization of the singing competition, too. Fortunately, the same group led the promotional campaigns of the singing competition and the Academy of Music. They had a hard task: to restart the new building and start the public relations of the singing competition. I can tell you every detail was done with clockwork precision under the communicative leadership of Imre Szabó Stein. I am fortunate, because two rectors have supported my work: András Batta, the former rector, who launched the organization and Andrea Vígh, the present rector, who accepted the competition and took sides with me. Thank you very much!
– What are your experiences of this first great competition?
– I am a practiced jury member: I realize the details, the costumes and the problems during the competitions. Thanks to organization group led by Beáta Schanda, the competition was been without a hitch. I think if the leaders give clear, good instructions and there is a good teamwork between the leaders, the work will be successful. The casting started in April, we picked almost 150 applicants with the help of the submitted DVDs. This hard task was done by a triple committee: Balázs Kocsár conductor, Atilla Kiss B. tenor (both are full members of the Hungarian Academy of Arts and me. We listened the same arias independently of each other, in the main at home. We pointed separately then we met, talked and chose the applicants. The members of the competition’s jury were my old colleagues, professionals and managers from Spain, Italy, Germany, England and – of course – Hungary.
– What are your experiences about the quantity of the talented singers?
– There are one or two real talents in every competition. It’s like the golddigging: it needs a lot of work and patience to find a gold nugget. In this competition the great talents were Szilvia Vörös, who won the grand prix, the first prizewinner Romanian baritone, the second prize-winner Ukrainian and the third prizewinner Polish women, but the other finalists stood their ground, too.
– What do you think about the influence of this competition in the life of the participants?
– I hope that this competition will be memorable for the finalists, because – among others – everybody received some prize. There were eleven finalists – many of them – will return in operatic roles and in concerts. We expect them back, we don’t like to lose connection to them. I plan to establish an international opera studio: I choose some from these young singers and with I would teach them with some Hungarian young talents in a postgraduate training with other branches of the complex theatre art, of course with a special professorial staff. I hope that I can realize this dream like the others.
– Will the International Eva Marton Competition continue?
– The great number of the applicants almost from the every country of the world, the participants and the extremely positive opinion of the practised, professional jury confirm that the competition would be organized twoyearly in this form. If the government support me also in the future and could grant the sufficient financial background: I give my name, my reputation and my knowledge to the idea. This is a form of my ars poetica in the present period of my career: “Only to serve, to serve...” (Kundry’s words from Wagner’s Parsifal: „Nur dienen, dienen...") I have to do it for my alma mater, for the Hungarian musical culture and for my homeland.
Source: MMA