PENTATONE is delighted to announce that three of its recordings have been shortlisted for the International Opera Awards 2026.
In the Recording (Recital) category, two PENTATONE releases have been nominated:
Puccini: Heroines documents the all-Puccini program presented by soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in February 2025 at Lyric Opera of Chicago, with conductor Enrique Mazzola.
Golden Age celebrates the glittering world of 19th-century opera and the golden age of bel canto, with music by Donizetti, Rossini, Bizet, Delibes and Verdi. Soprano Erin Morley and tenor Lawrence Brownlee are joined by the Münchner Rundfunkorchester under conductor Ivan Repušić. The album marks the PENTATONE debut of both Brownlee and Repušić, while Morley returns following her acclaimed performance in the label’s recording of Handel’s Alcina (2024).
In the Recording (Complete Opera) category, PENTATONE’s world premiere recording of Thomas de Hartmann’s lost opera Esther has also been shortlisted. Performed by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kirill Karabits, with an outstanding cast led by Corinne Winters, the recording brings to life a work composed, often by candlelight, during the Nazi occupation of Paris. De Hartmann, a non-Jewish Ukrainian expatriate, saw profound parallels between the events unfolding around him and the Biblical story of Esther as dramatized in Jean Racine’s play, from which he adapted the libretto. Esther is perhaps the only major musical work composed contemporaneously as a direct artistic response to the Holocaust. The recording is the next chapter of the Thomas de Hartmann Project and draws on a new modern performing edition prepared from the composer’s handwritten score.
PENTATONE extends its warmest congratulations to all the artists, musicians and creative teams behind these exceptional recordings, as well as to everyone else recognized on this year’s shortlist.
The winners will be announced on 21 November at the Musiktheater an der Wien in Vienna.
See the full shortlist on Opera International website.
