Twenty-two singers have made it to the quarter-final circular of the ninth Elizabeth Connell Prize, the final of which takes space on third June in London’s Wigmore Hall. The twenty-two sopranos and mezzos have been ed the one hundred seventy-two singers forty-one countries who entered this year’s competition. Twelve will be chosen for the semi-final on first June, six of whom will then compete in the live-streamed final, accompanied by Richard Black on piano.

Italian-Australian dual citizen Rebecca Gulinello is among the quarter-finalists, a mezzo who recently sang Mimi in Opera Australia’s La Bohème and Micaëla in the two thousand twenty-two outdoor Carmen performed on Cockatoo Island. Gulinello gained her Bachelor of Music performance (Honors) the Melbourne Conservatorium and was the recipient of The Amelia Joscelyne Scholarship with the Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust.

After further study in Italy in two thousand-fourteenth she sang with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Rebecca won her first international contest in the School of Vocal Arts annual Giargiari Bel Canto Contest and was also a finalist of the Mario Lanza Competition, The Loren. L. Zachary Contest (but was unable to attend due to COVID restrictions) and is a Metropolitan Opera National Council District winner. Gulinello and her fellow competitors will sing before a panel of judges including singers Dame Anne Evans and Bernadette Cullen, conductor Simone Young, and Peter Katona, Head of Casting Royal Opera Ho Covent Garden.

The contest is held below the auspices of the Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Foundation. The Elizabeth Connell Prize International Singing Contest was established in two thousand-fourteenth a heritage bequeathed by the late S African soprano, Elizabeth Connell. Its purpose is to allow financial support for aspiring dramatic female opera singers below the age of thirty-five.

Since two thousand fourteen, the contest has awarded AUD$384.000 to forty-five singers twenty-one countries, many of whom are presently singing in the leading opera hos of the world.