Young Aussie soprano is ray of light in a generally bleak year for Australian opera.

Australian soprano Nicole Car has been nominated for Best Young Singer in the annual International Awards as announced today. In a rather dispiriting list from a purely local perspective, Car (who thrilled audiences in Sydney and Melbourne last year in Kasper Holten’s production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Sir David McVicar’s production of Don Giovanni) is the main Australian nominee in a fairly Eurocentric collection of singers, companies and recordings. On a brighter note, Opera Australia are nominated for the second year running for Accesibility and Barrie Kosky’s Komische Oper Berlin is up for Best Company.

“It’s an unexpected honour – a lovely surprise to wake up to!” Car told Limelight. “The International Opera Awards tend to focus on European and American talent so it’s exciting to see Australian singers represented.” Guillaume Tourniaire, who worked with Car first on Eugene Onegin and is now conducting her in Faust for Opera Australia (opening February) was keen to highlight what makes her so unique. “The sweetness of her character, the sweetness of her voice and the flexibility of her voice all make Nicole special as an artist,” he told us. “Her intelligence, too. For a conductor, I can have an idea in my mind, and I just have to show something for her to immediately realise what I want to hear. With some singers you have to explain things and rehearse them many times, but she understands everything the first time. Her instinct as a performer is very strong, and obviously she has an amazing technique and beauty of the voice as well.”

“I remember when I was a very young pianist,” he went on. “I was playing in Geneva when Renée Fleming was singing La Contessa, and I remember very clearly the impression I had at that moment when she sung for the first time. And I must say that I had the same impression the first time I heard Nicole singing – something so special, not only beautiful but very, very unique.”

Meanwhile, in the more experienced categories, the Best Female Singer pits Anna Netrebko against Joyce DiDonato with German soprano Anja Harteros the possible dark horse. The Male Singer category (won last year by Australian heldentenor Stuart Skelton) are a less obviously starry bunch with American tenor Lawrence Brownlee, British countertenor Iestyn Davies and German baritone Christian Gerhaher the possible front runners.

Christian Thielemann is probably the most fancied name among the Best Conductor nominations though Semyon Bychkov, Edward Gardner and Gianandrea Noseda could give him a run for his money. The directors’ pack includes ‘Regie’ figures like Spain’s Calixto Bieito alongside more mainstream names like Canada’s Robert Carsen and the UK’s Richard Jones.

In the recordings categories Sony is the only major commercial company listed for a complete recording – in this case for their Marriage of Figaro from MusicAeterna, and Teodor Currentzis. The other contenders include the splendid recording of Handel’s Tamerlano with Xavier Sabata on Naïve and Offenbach’s charming Fantasio with Sarah Connolly in the title role on the ever-inspiring Opera Rara label. Recorded recitals include Joyce DiDonato’s Limelight Award-winning Stella di Napoli on Warner Classics and Cecilia Bartoli’s St. Petersburg on Decca.

Perhaps the most intriguing list, though, is the nominations for Rediscovered Work which comprises fascinating oddities such as Barbieri’s Los diamantes de la corona, Donizetti’s Les Martyrs (recording due out later this year), Faccio’s Amleto, Martinů’s What Men Live By, Rossini’s Aureliano in Palmira and Saint-Saëns’ Les Barbares.

The jury of British, European and American opera critics and practitioners was chaired by John Allison, editor of Opera magazine and included Peter Alward, Managing Director and Intendant of the Salzburg Easter Festival, Per Boye Hansen, Artistic Director of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, Kathryn Harries, Director of the National Opera Studio, Evans Mirageas, Artistic Director of Cincinnati Opera, Nicholas Payne, Director of Opera Europa, Hugh Canning, chief music critic for the UK’s Sunday Times and George Loomis from the International Herald Tribune.

Last year’s nominations included Stuart Skelton, several young Australians (soprano Helena Dix and baritone Duncan Rock were up for Best Young Singer) plus recognition for Barrie Kosky, Simone Young and the Melbourne Ring. At the April 26 awards ceremony in London it looks like Aussies will be putting most of their eggs in Car’s basket.

The full list of nominations is as follows:

Accessibility

Bregenz Festival

Den Norske Opera

Festival d’Aix-en-Provence

Opera Australia

Opera North

Opera Philadelphia

Conductor

Semyon Bychkov

Edward Gardner

Lothar Koenigs

Gianandrea Noseda

Carlo Rizzi

Christian Thielemann

CD (Complete Opera)

Bartók: Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, Signum

Handel: Tamerlano, Naïve

Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, Sony

Offenbach: Fantasio, Opera Rara

Rameau: Les Indes galantes, Musiques à la Chabotterie

Strauss: Intermezzo, cpo

CD (Operatic Recital)

Anna Bonitatibus: Semiramide: La Signora Regale, deutsche harmonia mundi

Cecilia Bartoli: St Petersburg, Decca

Joyce DiDonato: Stella di Napoli, Warner Classics

Franco Fagioli: Porpora—il maestro, Naïve

Carolyn Sampson: Arias for Marie Fel, Hyperion

Krassimira Stoyanova: Verdi Arias, Orfeo

Chorus

English National Opera

Metropolitan Opera

MusicAeterna (Perm Opera)

Opera Vlaanderen

Welsh National Opera

Wiener Staatsoper

Designer

Es Devlin

Klaus Grunberg

Michael Levine

Erhard Rom

Jürgen Rose

Paul Steinberg

Director

David Alden

Calixto Bieito

Robert Carsen

Richard Jones

Christof Loy

Graham Vick

DVD

Andriessen: La Commedia, Nonesuch

Berg: Lulu, Bel Air Classiques

Britten: Death in Venice, Opus Arte

Hahn: Ciboulette, FRA Musica

Strauss: Elektra, Bel Air Classiques

Wagner: Parsifal, Sony

Female Singer

Joyce DiDonato

Anja Harteros

Liudmyla Monastyrska

Anna Netrebko

Anita Rachvelishvili

Sonya Yoncheva

Festival

Bregenz

Cincinnati Opera

Garsington

Glimmerglass

Operadagen Rotterdam

Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro

Male Singer

Lawrence Brownlee

Iestyn Davies

Christian Gerhaher

John Osborn

Michael Spyres

Ludovic Tézier

Newcomer

Christopher Allen

Mary Birnbaum

James Darrah

Lotte de Beer

Tim Murray

Raphaël Pichon

New Production

Alcina, Zurich Opera

Ariodante, Aix-en-Provence

Gurrelieder, DNO

Benvenuto Cellini, English National Opera

Khovanskygate, Birmingham Opera Company

Prince Igor, Metropolitan Opera

Opera Company

English National Opera

Komische Oper Berlin

Novaya Opera

Opera Vlaanderen

Oper Graz

Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie

Readers’ Award

Piotr Beczała

Ferruccio Furlanetto

Susan Graham

Jonas Kaufmann

Aleksandra Kurzak

Mariusz Kwiecien

Karita Mattila

Nina Stemme

Rediscovered Work

Barbieri: Los diamantes de la corona, Teatro de la Zarzuela

Donizetti: Les Martyrs, Opera Rara

Faccio: Amleto, Opera Southwest

Martinů: What Men Live By, Czech Philharmonic

Rossini: Aureliano in Palmira, Rossini Opera Festival

Saint-Saëns: Les Barbares, L’Opéra-Théâtre de St Etienne

Richard Strauss Anniversary Production (In memory of Michael Kennedy)

Ariadne auf Naxos, Glimmerglass

Daphne, La Monnaie

Feuersnot, Dresden Music Festival

Die Frau ohne Schatten, Royal Opera

Friedenstag, Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern

Der Rosenkavalier, Glyndebourne

World Premiere

Anderson: Thebans, English National Opera

Bell: A Christmas Carol, Houston Grand Opera

Boesmans: Au Monde, La Monnaie

Gothe: Blanche & Marie, Norrlands Operan Umeå

Gruber: Tales from the Vienna Woods, Bregenz

Metcalf: Under Milk Wood: Taliesin Arts Centre (Swansea), Le Chien qui Chante (Montreal) and Companion Star (NY) in association with Welsh National Opera

Young Singer

Angel Blue

David Butt Philip

Nicole Car

Aurelia Fabian

Justina Gringyte

Jennifer Johnson Cano

Ross Ramgobin

Nicky Spence