On Sunday, March 2, the grand final of the first Farinelli Competition for countertenors, organized by Händel-Festspiele Karlsruhe and broadcast live by Total Baroque, took place. You can now watch the event replay and discover the international finalists. 
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Fifty candidates registered, twenty-four were selected, and six made it to the finals. The jury of the first Farinelli International Countertenor Competition delivered its verdict on Sunday evening: Dennis Orellana, 24, from Honduras, was declared the grand winner of the competition, ahead of French countertenor Rémy Brès-Feuillet, who also received the special “Contemporary Music” award. The Audience Prize was awarded to Yongbeom Kwon from South Korea.
Dennis Orellana was born in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
He made his professional and international debut in the role of Berardo in August 2021 in Carlo il Calvo (an opera by Nicola Porpora) at the Teatro Auditorio San Lorenzo del Escorial. He then shared the stage with renowned artists such as Max Emanuel Cenčić, Julia Lezhneva, Franco Fagioli, and others, under the musical direction of Markellos Chryssicos, alongside the Greek baroque orchestra Armonia Atenea.
At the Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival in 2022, Dennis performed as Zeffiro in Il Nascimento dell’Aurora and Ernesto in Griselda, marking his debut before a large international audience.
His performances in Mozartian roles, such as Cavalier Ramiro in La Finta Giardiniera in Salzburg and Sifare in Mitridate, re di Ponto at the Mozartiade in Brussels, as well as at the Wallonia Festivals in Mons and Namur, were highly acclaimed.
His competition performance included two arias by Handel: “Non Son Sempre Vane Larve” from Arminio (1737) and “Come Nube” from Agrippina (1709).
Yongbeom Kwon, originally from South Korea, began his vocal studies in 2013 at the age of 18, specializing in sacred music. Since 2019, he has been studying at the Berlin University of the Arts, first under Professor María José Montiel and later with Professor Deborah York. He made his debut in January 2022 at the Rococo Theatre during the early music festival Winter in Schwetzingen. His repertoire includes early music, oratorio, opera, lieder, as well as modern compositions. He has been awarded a scholarship for the Berlin Radio Choir Academy.
His performance featured two arias: “Ombra Fedel Anch’io”, from the opera Idaspe (1730) by Riccardo Broschi—brother of Farinelli—who composed the role of Dario specifically for him; and “Nel Profondo”, from Orlando Furioso (1727) by Vivaldi.
Rémy Brès-Feuillet holds a law degree and, after studying accordion at the CRR of Avignon, pursued vocal training in opera singing at the CNRR of Marseille. Awarded the “Young Hope” prize in 2019 by the Centre Français de Promotion Lyrique (formerly Génération Opéra), he won the Young Artist Award in 2021 at the Cesti Competition of the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik.
He made his stage debut in the role of the Triad in the world premiere of Marco Quesada’s opera BaroKKo at the Perm Academic Theatre, followed by a performance at the Baltic House Festival in Saint Petersburg in 2019 (directed by Serge Noyelle). He collaborates with the Théâtre NoNo company, where he explores countertenor voice research and its relationship to theatricality and contemporary creation.
His performance included the arias “Verdi Prati” and “A Dispetto D’un Volto Ingratto”, from Handel’s operas Alcina(1735) and Tamerlano (1724), respectively.
Watch the video livestream of the final here.
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