The Herald Sun Aria, formerly known as The Sun Aria (because it was sponsored by '' The Sun News-Pictorial'') is a vocal competition for emerging opera singers held in Victoria, Australia, each year. The competition offers nearly $60,000 in cash prizes. The competition forms the aria section of the

Royal South Street Eisteddfod Not to be confused with the historical Ballarat Welsh Eisteddfods. The Royal South Street Eisteddfod, also known as The Grand National Eisteddfod of Australasia, is held annually in Ballarat, Australia and is administered by the Royal South Str ...

, Australia's oldest and largest eisteddfod. Her majestys ballarat

Three of the most famous past winners of the Aria competition are Wagnerian soprano Marjorie Lawrence (1928) and Dames Malvina Major (1964)"New Year Honours: Big surprise for opera dame"

NZPA The New Zealand Press Association (NZPA) was a news agency that existed from 1879 to 2011 and provided national and international news to the media of New Zealand. The largest news agency in the country, it was founded as the United Press Associa ...

in ''

The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspaper ...

'', 31 December 2007 and

Kiri Te Kanawa Dame Kiri Jeanette Claire Te Kanawa , (; born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron, 6 March 1944) is a retired New Zealand opera singer. She had a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced". Te ...

in 1965. Other previous winners include June Bronhill (1950), Jonathan Summers (1973), Judith Henley (1976),

Suzanne Ward Suzanne may refer to: People * Suzanne (given name), a feminine given name (including a list of people with the name) * S. U. Zanne, pen name of August Vandekerkhove (1838–1923), Belgian writer and inventor * Suzanne, pen name of Renée Méndez ...

(1984),

Linda Thompson Linda Diane Thompson (born May 23, 1950) is an American songwriter, former actress and beauty pageant winner. Thompson began her acting career as a " Hee Haw Honey" on the American television variety show '' Hee Haw''. She was also a girlfrien ...

(1990), Rachelle Durkin (2000), and Nicole Car (2007). The heats (generally two) of the competition are held annually in September at

Her Majesty's Theatre Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Haymarket, London, Haymarket in the City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, ...

, and the final is held at Hamer Hall in the Arts Centre Melbourne in early November. Finalists are accompanied by Orchestra Victoria, conducted by Maestro

Richard Divall Richard Sydney Divall (9 September 1945 – 15 January 2017) was an Australian conductor and musicologist. After nine years as a music producer at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, from 1972 on the invitation of Dame Joan Hammond he ...

AO, OBE. The competition has a panel of three adjudicators, and Richard Divall has been a panel member since 2001. The other adjudicators in 2014 were Roxane Hislop and Tiffany Speight. Contestants, who are aged 32 years or under, are required to submit four

aria In music, an aria ( Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompa ...

s from

grand opera Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterized by large-scale casts and orchestras, and (in their original productions) lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on o ...

prior to the competition, and choose one of these to sing in the heat. Sixteen semi-finalists are selected from those singing in the heats to appear on the evening following the second heat, again at Her Majesty's Theatre and sing another aria, this time chosen from their list by the panel of adjudicators. Five finalists are then chosen to compete in the final at Hamer Hall.

References

{{reflist Music competitions in Australia Ballarat Sun Aria Opera competitions Recurring events established in 1924