Nominations for the 37th Green Room Awards have been announced, celebrating outstanding achievement in Melbourne’s live performance sector across opera, theatre, musicals, dance and cabaret in 2019.

In Opera, five singers have been nominated for Best Female Lead. For Melbourne Opera, mezzo-soprano Jacqueline Dark’s Adalgisa in Norma and soprano Lee Abrahmsen’s Senta in The Flying Dutchman see them both recognised, with Abrahmsen a repeat nominee after last year’s nod for her Marschallin in MO’s Der Rosenkavalier. For Opera Australia, soprano Jane Ede’s Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and South Korean soprano Karah Son’s Liù in Turandot see them both nominated. For her turn as the sorceress Kundry in Victorian Opera’s Parsifal, Swedish mezzo Katarina Dalayman has also been recognised.

Samuel Sakker and Jacqueline Dark. Photo © Robin Halls

In the running for Best Male Lead this year are bass-baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes, for his Méphistophélès in OA’s Faust, bass-baritone Derek Welton, for his Klingsor in VO’s Parsifal, Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat for the title role in OA’s Rigoletto, tenor Rosario La Spina for his Erik in MO’s The Flying Dutchman, and English bass-baritone Darren Jeffery for the title role...