The winners of the 2023 Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Bel Canto Award and its partner prize, the Sydney International Song Prize, were announced over the weekend with over $100,000 in prize money and training programmes divided between winners and runners up.

The Grand Final of these two prestigious singing competitions took place at the Independent Theatre in North Sydney on Sunday 29 October. Each finalist performed four arias before a judging panel of Richard Bonynge, mezzo soprano Bernadette Cullen, soprano Marilyn Richardson and the Foundation’s CEO, mezzo-soprano Fiona Janes.

Rebecca Gulinello. Photo supplied

Singing arias by Mozart, Cilea, Puccini and Massenet, the winner of the 13th Annual JSRB Bel Canto Award was the Melbourne soprano Rebecca Gulinello. In addition to her $30,000 prize and trophy, Gulinello also won the Audience Prize and a place in the 2024 Solti Accademia di Bel Canto Summer School in Tuscany.

The second prize, the Richard Bonynge Award and Best Mozart Aria Prize went to Victorian bass baritone James Young. The third prize and the Tait Memorial Award Prize was awarded to New Zealand soprano Felicity Tomkins.