2016-17 Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation (UK) Cover Awards Announced
Posted on 22 December 2016
In 2014 in recognition of Dame Kiri’s 70th birthday and her long professional association with Covent Garden the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation (UK) announced a grant of £70,000 to be used by The Royal Opera House to allow selected artists to take on cover roles where ROH might not normally have a cover in place. The two singers selected for the 2016-17 season Cover Awards are:
Armenian tenor Liparit Avetisyan makes his Royal Opera debut in the 2016/17 Season as Alfredo Germont (La traviata). Avetisyan was born in Yerevan and studied at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory and the Komitas State Conservatory, Yerevan. His many roles with Armenian National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet include Alfredo and Don José (Carmen). He regularly performs in concert with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, in roles including the Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto), Rodolfo (La bohème) and in Verdi’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem and Das Lied von der Erde. Engagements elsewhere include Don José in China, Des Grieux (Manon) in Moscow and Count Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia) for Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre. Other roles in his repertory include Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Werther, Lensky (Eugene Onegin) and Young Gypsy (Aleko).
British soprano Meeta Raval made her Royal Opera debut in 2015 as Girl (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny). She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio. She was a finalist in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2011, and is the winner of the Dame Eva Turner Prize for ‘Soprano with Dramatic Potential’. Her operatic engagements include Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly) for English National Opera, Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Lisa (The Queen of Spades) and Ortlinde (Die Walküre) for Opera North, Nedda (Pagliacci) for Welsh National Opera and Countess Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) for the RAM under Colin Davis. In November 2016 Raval is covering the role of Manon (Manon Lescaut).