(above: a shot of Graham Vick's BOC La Traviata from October 2007, courtesy of timrobbins12's flickr stream found here).
The Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards, the UK's live classical music awards (in association with BBC Radio 3), recently announced the big hawt winners of their 2008 award ceremony.
Most delicious and warranted victory? The RPS music award (partnership with Classic FM) in “Audience Development" went to Graham Vick's Birmingham Opera Company for two performances of Verdi’s La Traviata at the National Indoor Arena in October 2007, which drew audiences upwards of 10K (with a crew of around 450 making it all possible). This is the second RPS Music Award for the BOC, having scored one back in 2001.
Other achievers were Christine Brewer, who won the Radio 3 “Listeners Award”; Musical Director of the ENO, 33-year-old Edward Gardner for the “Conductor Award”; José Antonio Abreu, who was awarded "Honorary Membership" of the Royal Philharmonic Society for his El Sistema phenomenon; and the uncontainable fury that is Gustavo Dudamel, who won for best “Young Artist”.
Because Vick’s powah 2 teh p33 ps BOC productions are so accessible and so welcoming to the public (boasting 5£ seats, c'mon), you can sample a behind-the-scenes taste of the winning La Traviata production, courtesy of timrobbins12's flickr photostream: his set titled, "La Traviata Birmingham Opera Company". Yay 4 every1~!