Musical director and chief conductor of the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, Associate Professor of the Baku Music Academy named after Uzeyir Hajibeyli, Honored Artist Eyub Guliyev took part in the work of the jury of the XXVII International Opera Singing Competition named after M. Glinka, the press service of the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan reported to Day.Az.
With the support of the Ministry of Culture of Russia and the Foundation for Cultural Initiatives of the President of Russia, the competition took place for a week in the famous Moscow concert hall “Zaryadye” and this year was dedicated to the 220th anniversary of the outstanding Russian composer Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804-1857) and the 100th anniversary of the famous opera singer Irina Arkhipova (1925-2010), who headed the competition jury for many years.
At the opening ceremony of the competition, a gala concert was organized with the participation of the world famous conductor, general director of the Moscow Bolshoi Theater Valery Gergiev and former winners of the Glinka competition. In connection with participation in the competition this year, the organizing committee received about 500 applications. Of these, 63 participants from 12 countries received the right to participate in the competition program.
In the final round of the competition, the finalists performed accompanied by the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra (chief conductor and artistic director, Honored Artist of Russia Ivan Rudin) conducted by Eyyub Guliyev. By decision of the jury, 1st place was taken by Ekaterina Lukash (Stanislavsky Opera House), Otabek Nazirov (Uzbekistan), 2nd place – Ekaterina Begunovich (Novosibirsk Opera), Konstantin Fedotov (New Opera), 3rd place – Ekaterina Savinkova (Mariinsky Theater) and Ivan Borodulin (Mariinsky Theater). After the closing ceremony of the competition, the laureates went to Glinka’s homeland in Smolensk and performed a concert.
It should be noted that the Glinka competition, founded in 1960, has a special history associated with Azerbaijan. In 1987, the competition was held in Baku under the leadership of the outstanding singer Irina Arkhipova. Dmitry Hvorostovsky and Olga Borodina took first place in this competition.