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The Competition opens the door to career 

18 january 2019, Friday

The Competition opens the door to career 

An interview with Stanislav Kuflyuk, an opera singer, a laureate of the 1st Prize and the Grand Prix at the 3rd International Adam Didur Opera Singers’ Competition in 2012. 

A young soloist is taking his first steps on the stage and decides to take part in the 2nd International Adam Didur Opera Singers’  Competition. The first competition and already ... the 3rd place! 

This was the beginning of my professional career, the artistic season 2007/2008.  The first theatre that offered me a place was the Silesian Opera, the other was the Wrocław Opera.  For that first season I stayed in Wrocław and it was then that the Didur Competition was organised.  It was my own decision to participate, but I was slightly inspired by Tadeusz Serafin, at that time the director of the Silesian Opera. After Lucia di Lamermoor, in which I did not sing, but participated in the rehearsals, he told me to apply for the competition.  I had my doubts, I though it was past the deadline.  It turned out that the application was still possible.

It was worth it, because you won the third place.  Were you happy or surprised?

Frankly? I felt a little bit unsatisfied... But on the other hand, it was my first competition and right away an international one.  I remember that it was then that I sang for the first time in my life the part of Figaro from The Barber of Seville.  At first, I really thought that I would not make it for the finals.  I went for the auditions without any anxiety. When I heard my name among the finalists I was a little bit scared and I even thought “Goodness me, what will I do now?!” Because it was a big thing. Fortunately, Piotr Warzecha, the director who conducted the finals calmed me down, his word were balm to my troubled soul.  I learnt the aria in one day. And then it was one of my major parts.  The Didur Competition was my baptism of fire, I felt a way better on the stage, I learnt what I was able of.  After the competition, I was offered an engagement with the Bytom Opera and I decided to accept the offer.  

And then there was another edition, the year 2012, and this time really great success – the Grand Prix.  Did you have the ambition to win the first prize?  

I was in two minds, I could not decide, but Łukasz Goik, the present director of the Silesian Opera, convinced me. He told me: “You have to take part, it is your chance, you have good repertoire, you have to, really have to participate...” And I am happy I did.  In the finals I sang the aria from The Barber of Seville, but this time it was different, more mature, I felt very good.  I also felt very good in the costume, I knew the orchestra, the conductor.  The great supporting audience.  I felt that mental comfort.  

What advantages are there from participating in the International Adam Didur Opera Singers’  Competition?

Definitely it is reassuring, it gives you self-confidence.  It is a high profile event.  The participants perform on various opera stages all around the world.  In the last edition we had e.g. Tatiana Ganina who sang at the Metropolitan Opera. And it was superb. During the auditions one could see the competition.  It gives you the possibility of learning and verifying your skills.  It is also a chance for professional networking.  You can meet directors and persons responsible for engagements. On the other hand, the atmosphere here is incredible, there is positive energy not only professionally, but there is a sense of musical and artistic brotherhood. You can meet so many fantastic people! Artists from Russia, Western Europe, the USA.  They share stories about the competition when they get back home.  And here they have the chance to gain experience, sing with brilliant orchestra under the baton of top-class conductors.  I remember when I was in Moscow and one of the colleagues asked me for the next edition of the competition.  I was truly surprised that he knew about that.  It turns out that the participants share info about his event with their colleagues.  And they tell about Silesia which they have a chance to visit.  The Competition is a brand of its own, it is known worldwide.  Taking part is a great artistic adventure and for many it opens door to professional career.

Magdalena Nowacka-Goik

Baritone, born in Iwano-Frankiwsk (Stanislaviv), Ukraine, where he graduated from the Arts Institute. He is a laureate of the Grand Prix at the International Vocal Competition “The Art of the 21st Century” (Lempaala, Finland, 2006), 3rd Prize at the Ada Sari International Competition of Vocal Art   (Nowy Sącz, 2011), Grand Prix and prize at the International Adam Didur Opera Singers’  Competition (Bytom 2012). The soloist cooperates with the most important opera theatres and philharmonics in Poland and abroad where he sings leading parts in Eugene Onegin and Don Giovanni, Conte di Luna In Il trovatore, Marques Rodrigo di Posa in “Don Carlo, Valentin in Faust, Sir Ford in Falstaff, Miecznik in The Haunted Manor, Janusz in Halka, Marcello in La Boheme, Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Lord Ashton in Lucia di Lammenmoor, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro. He participates in numerous festivals in Poland and abroad, including i.a. Summer Festival of the Cracow Opera, the Opera Festival of Bydgoszcz, the Wrocław Festival of Contemporary Operas or lately in Bregenzer Festspiele (2014). Since 2015 he has sang the part of Prince Elecky in The Queen of Spades on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.  He commenced his cooperation with Teatr Wielki-National Opera in Warsaw where he sings the part of Miecznik in Moniuszko’s The Haunted Manor. In October 2017 he performed the world premiere of Moses a sacred opera by Anton Rubinstein in National Philharmonics in Warsaw; he also made a recoding of that for Warner Classics. A year later, on the stage of the Silesian Opera he created the leading part in Józef Michał Ksawery Poniatowski’s Don Desiderio in Polish language version.


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