Despite nominations for the Opera Australia Chorus, Barrie Kosky’s production of The Nose and director Simon Stone, Australians have lost out at this year’s International Opera Awards.

The 2017 winners were announced at a ceremony at the London Coliseum on May 7 and Russian soprano Anna Netrebko was awarded Best Female Singer for the first time since the event was founded in 2012. Australian audiences will have their first chance to hear Netrebko in the flesh this October as she will be making her debut Down Under, together with her husband tenor Yusif Eyvazov, in concerts in Melbourne and Sydney.

Renata Scotto

Best singer in the male category was awarded to American tenor Lawrence Brownlee, legendary Italian soprano and opera director, Renata Scotto, received the Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Opera Magazine Readers’ Award went to Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez.

The international jury was comprised of 21 industry professionals based almost exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere and chaired by John Allison, editor of Opera magazine and classical music critic for the UK’s Daily Telegraph. With Deborah Jones, Sydney correspondent of Opera magazine and dance critic with The Australian, being the only Australian member on...