News

The German magazine Opernwelt and the international competition Ring Award have jointly created the opera prize “Mortier Award”, of biannual nature, which will be bestowed firstly to Gerard Mortier next 31st May in the city of Graz (Austria), in an event where the film maker Michael Haneke is expected to give the encomium for the artistic advisor of the Teatro Real.

This new award is intended to acknowledge the work of those opera professionals who work actively for the modernization of the genre and its institutions so that they “move to the rhythm of their time” and also “see the musical theatre as a source of existential knowledge as well as a meeting place for the society”, “a reminder of the meaning of both the innovation and risk within art”.

By awarding Gerard Mortier the aim is to honor one of the most influential European figures, who has been the key towards the need of renovation within the opera, and who has also worked restlessly to place this genre under the spotlight of the contemporary artistic creation.