On Sunday, seven singers competed for the 2024 Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Award at the Grand Final held in North Sydney’s Independent Theatre.

The 30-year-old New Zealand soprano Eliza Boom took home the $40,000 Bel Canto Award with a unanimous vote from the judging panel, singing arias from Capriccio, Thaïs, Madama Butterfly and Così fan tutte.

Eliza Boom. Photo © Zohar Izenberg

Fiona Janes, the CEO and Artistic Director of the Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Foundation said, “rarely does a singer come along with such commanding dramatic instinct who is vocally ravishing.”

“She is a true storyteller and a mesmerising performer, especially in the Richard Strauss repertoire, a rare find in one so young.”

Boom is already preparing for another major singing competition – Placido Domingo’s Operalia in Mumbai – where she was chosen as one of 32 singers globally. She will then return to Europe where she has previously been engaged as a guest artist with the Bayerische Staatsoper, Stuttgart Staatsoper, The Royal Danish Opera, and more.

In June, Boom was the winner of the Elizabeth Connell Prize, an international competition held at Wigmore Hall in London, also supported by...