Operalia announces its 2026 winners in Shanghai

The American soprano and Ukrainian bass-baritone took first prizes in Shanghai, with both also receiving the audience awards.

American soprano Emma Marhefka and Ukrainian bass-baritone Vladyslav Buialskyi have won first prizes at Operalia 2026, which concluded on November 1 in Shanghai. Hosted by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Shangyin Opera House, the competition ran from October 26 to November 1.

Both singers also received the Rolex Prize of the Audience, while Marhefka additionally won the Pepita Embil Prize of Zarzuela.

The first-prize winners

Marhefka was a Grand Finals winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2025 Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition and joined its Lindemann Young Artist Development Program for the 2025–26 season. She made her Met debut as Papagena in The Magic Flute, and her appearances have included Musetta in La bohème at Santa Fe Opera and Arizona Opera.

Buialskyi, from Berdyansk, Ukraine, is a principal singer at Semperoper Dresden and a former member of the Met’s Lindemann program. His engagements have included Leporello in Don Giovanni at Opéra de Lille and an appearance in Prokofiev’s The Gambler at the 2024 Salzburg Festival. Earlier this year, he also won first prize at the Tenor Viñas Competition.

Other awards

Second prizes went to American soprano Tessa McQueen and South Korean baritone Junhyeok Felix Park, while Ukrainian bass Roman Chabaranok received third prize.

McQueen and British tenor Robert Lewis received the Birgit Nilsson Prize. Cuban baritone Eleomar Cuello won the Don Plácido Domingo Ferrer Prize of Zarzuela, and Spanish soprano Sofía Esparza received the CulturArte Prize.

The jury brought together representatives of leading opera institutions, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Ballet and Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Bavarian State Opera and Teatro alla Scala.