Operalia 2026 Names 20 Semi-Finalists After Two Quarter-Final Rounds

Twenty singers will compete in the 2026 Operalia Competition, running Oct. 26 to Nov. 1, 2026, after the organization announced its semi-finalist lineup following two rounds of Quarter Finals.

The main-competition list spans eleven countries and five voice types. The semi-finalists are:

• Alikhan Beisekov, baritone, Kazakhstan
• Vladyslav Buialskyi, bass-baritone, Ukraine
• Roman Chabaranok, bass, Ukraine
• Tiffany Choe, soprano, USA
• Eleomar Cuello, baritone, Cuba
• Aksel Daveyan, baritone, Armenia
• Marianna Hovanisyan, soprano, Armenia
• Song Hee Lee, soprano, South Korea
• Gabriela Legun, soprano, Poland
• Robert Lewis, tenor, UK
• Zihao Li, baritone, China
• Tessa McQueen, soprano, USA
• Emma Marhefka, soprano, USA
• Junhyeok Felix Park, baritone, South Korea
• Sungmin Park, bass, South Korea
• Ben Reisinger, tenor, USA
• Kirill Sikora, tenor, Russia
• Jiazhou Wang, baritone, China
• Gonghao Zhang, baritone, China
• Haolun Zhang, countertenor, China

Baritones dominate. Nine of the twenty fall into that category, plus one bass-baritone. China fields the largest contingent with four singers; the USA follows with four as well.

Who competes in the Zarzuela strand?

Operalia runs a parallel Zarzuela competition (the Spanish lyric-theatre repertoire that sits between opera and musical comedy), and ten singers have qualified for it:

• Vladyslav Buialskyi, bass-baritone, Ukraine
• Tiffany Choe, soprano, USA
• Eleomar Cuello, baritone, Cuba
• Aksel Daveyan, baritone, Armenia
• Sofía Esparza, soprano, Spain
• Zihao Li, baritone, China
• Emma Marhefka, soprano, USA
• Robert Lewis, tenor, UK
• Aitana Sanz, soprano, Spain
• Jiazhou Wang, baritone, China

Six singers — Buialskyi, Choe, Cuello, Daveyan, Li, Marhefka, Lewis and Wang — appear on both lists, doubling their chances and their workload.

Who judges the competition?

The jury draws its members from the Metropolitan Opera, Dutch National Opera, Teatro alla Scala and Wiener Staatsoper, among other houses. That is roughly the casting directorship of the entire top tier of international opera in one room.

Plácido Domingo founded Operalia in 1993 to launch young careers, and its alumni list explains why the competition draws this level of jury. Previous winners include Ekaterine Buachidze, Mihai Damian, Kathleen O'Mara, Le Bu, Juliana Grigoryan, Anthony León, Adriana Gonzalez, Xabier Anduaga, Adela Zaharia, and Levy Sekgapane.

The roll call reads like a casting shortlist for any major house's next decade.

What happens between Oct. 26 and Nov. 1?

The semi-finalists now head into the final week of competition, where the jury will trim the field and award prizes in both the opera and Zarzuela categories. Several past winners — Anduaga and Zaharia among them — moved quickly from Operalia podiums to principal roles at major houses, and the 2026 class will be watching that same path.

For singers aged roughly 18 to 32, the week in late October remains one of the fastest routes from conservatory to contract.