The recipients of the seventeenth annual OPERA NEWS Awards are soprano Elza van den Heever, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, and baritone Quinn Kelsey will be celebrated at a black-tie gala on Sunday, April 3, 2022, at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, marking the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s return to live, in-person events.
J’Nai Bridges and Piotr Beczala will perform, and the gala will also feature appearances by Nina Stemme and Christian Van Horn.
Editor in Chief F. Paul Driscoll says: “Elza van den Heever’s performances are blessed with her shining, generous spirit and charged by her formidable sense of adventure; her glorious soprano and her fierce dramatic commitment have galvanized audiences throughout the world. Born in South Africa and trained in the United States, van den Heever has now taken her rightful place in the great opera houses of the world. She began the current season with a triumphant return to San Francisco Opera as Beethoven’s Leonore and the coming months will find her in Berlin, New York and Paris bringing her unique interpretive magic to the music of Wagner, Handel and Richard Strauss.”
Individual tickets to the OPERA NEWS Awards are available beginning at $1,000; individual Benefactor tickets are available at $1,250; and President’s Circle tickets at $1,500. In addition, Benefactor tables are available at $10,000; President’s Circle tables at $12,500; and Gold Circle tables at $15,000.
Proceeds from the gala and its live and silent auctions will benefit the education programs of the Metropolitan Opera Guild, which has published OPERA NEWS since 1936. A portion of each ticket purchase is tax deductible, as allowed by law. For event information, or to purchase tickets, please visit the Metropolitan Opera Guild website (www.metguild.org/awards) or call 212-769-7009.