Limelight speaks to the tenor and to runner up Jessica Harper about what the competition means for their careers.

Tenor Boyd Owen has taken home the 2017 Sydney Eisteddfod Opera Scholarship, impressing the judges with his performances of Donizetti’s Ah! mes amis and Puccini’s Che gelida manina. In addition to the scholarship worth $35,000, Owen will receive a further $5000 cash and airfares to the value of $3000 to see him study abroad. In the past, the prize has gone to opera stars including Dame Joan Sutherland, Kiri Te Kanawa, Stuart Skelton, and Nicole Car.

“When they announced my name as the winner I must admit there was an avalanche of emotion as I have won very few competitions in the past… there was such a mixture of relief, disbelief, exhaustion, pride, happiness and deep gratitude that I actually started to cry,” Owen told Limelight. “I will remember that moment my whole life”.

A runner up in 2016, Owen spent many months preparing for this year’s competition, work that has obviously paid off. “From the smallest note and rest lengths, dynamic and tempo markings, to every language nuance, I tried as much as I could to thoroughly understand and prepare...