Brett Dean’s Hamlet has triumphed at this year’s International Opera Awards, winning best World Premiere. The Australian composer’s much acclaimed opera had its premiere at Glyndebourne in June 2017, before being seen earlier this year at the Adelaide Festival.

Brett Dean. Photo © Bettina Stoess

The award for Female Singer went to Swedish soprano Malin Byström, beating out a strong list of contenders that included Carmen Giannattasio, Barbara Hannigan, Hui He, Ermonela Jaho and Eva-Maria Westbroek. The award for Male Singer went to Polish tenor Piotr Beczala, who was up against Günther Groissböck, Peter Mattei, Eric Owens, Simone Piazzola and Michael Spyres. Pretty Yende, last year’s winner for Solo Recital Recording, won the Readers’ Award with more than 10,000 online votes.

In the Young Singer category, Canadian mezzo Wallis Giunta came out ahead, with Australian soprano Lauren Fagan among the nominees. Elsewhere, best newcomer went to director Barbora Horáková Joly, who beat out a strong group of nominees that included Australian conductor Dane Lam.

Russian conductor Vladimir Jurowski, recently announced as the next music director of Bavarian State Opera, won an award for conducting. Australian Simone Young was also nominated, as was Marc Albrecht, Daniele Gatti, Fabio...