Diplomas were awarded at a gala ceremony on June 30 to 20 young singers upon completion of their studies at the Opera Centre. The graduates were warmly greeted by the Centre’s Artistic Director, Galina Vishnevskaya, who wished them well in their artistic endeavors, great success and interesting work in the future. The graduates thanked their teachers, accompanists and colleagues on stage and spoke of their dreams and plans for the future.
On the eve of the ceremony, the singers took part in a graduation concert in which they had an opportunity to demonstrate their talent and the knowledge and experience they acquired at the Opera Centre. The public was reminded of the outstanding debuts of Viktoria Grig in Carmen, Vera Azikova in The Marriage and Other Horrors, Nadezhda Karyazina in Faust and Eugene Onegin, Veronika Pogrebna-Lyalikova in The Tsar’s Bride, Ksenia Tikhonova in Eugene Onegin, Nana Cherkezia in Iolanta, Dmitry Iorgman in The Marriage and Other Horrors, Eugene Onegin and The Tsar’s Bride, Pyotr Sizov in The Tsar’s Bride and Eugene Onegin and Ilya Ushullu in Carmen, The Tsar’s Bride and Faust.
The new graduates were joined by those of previous years who had just returned from a series of successful appearances at the Opera Royal de Wallonie in Liege, Belgium.