Darren Pene Pati has won first prize in the Montserrat Caballé International Singing Competition in the Spanish city of Zaragosa. The New Zealand tenor knocked the jury out with his seemingly effortless interpretation of the taxing Ah, lève-toi, soleil from Act II of Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette. Pati, shortly to be heard in Sydney as one third of the popular vocal group Sol3Mio, is now 12,000 euros better off – that’s nearly $18,000 Australian.

A remarkable 304 singers began the preliminary rounds last Sunday with only 14 reaching the final where they were judged by Roger Alier, Juan Pons, Justino Diaz, Carlos Caballé and Fernando Sans Rivière.

An audience of about 700 people saw Montserrat Caballé award the prizes. The legendary soprano, who has had problems of late with both her health and her income tax returns, made the usual remarks about an “exciting and memorable contest” and how the jury had had “great difficulty in choosing a winner”. She received an ovation however when she took to the floor to declare that this year’s contest marked the 50th anniversary of her marriage to the Aragonese tenor Bernabé Martí.

The second prize of 6000 euros went to the Korean soprano Seoyung Park...