The call for entries (deadline December 19) aimed at promoting young opera talents of any nationality has been published. The final evening will be held on February 8, 2026, at the Teatro del Popolo.
Young opera talents of any nationality, step forward. The call for entries for the Umberto Borsò International Opera Singing Competition (3rd edition) has been published. The competition offers a total prize fund of €9,000 and is open to anyone who is 18 years of age or older on the application deadline, December 19, 2025.
Named after the famous tenor from Castelfiorentino, Umberto Borsò (1923-2018), the award is promoted by the “Amici della Lirica Umberto Borsò” Association thanks to an agreement with the family, in particular with his daughter Vittoria Borsò, to give tangible and concrete follow-up to her father’s tireless teaching work. Once he retired from the stage, he devoted himself incessantly to teaching and promoting young opera talents.
Each year, the award is presented at the end of an opera singing competition, divided into three stages: preliminary, semi-final, and final. The final round, in which fourteen competitors will be admitted, will be held at the Teatro del Popolo in Castelfiorentino on Sunday, February 8, 2026 (6:00 p.m.) and will take the form of a public concert. At the end of the evening, the winners of the prizes, consisting of scholarships and engagements for opera and concert productions, will be announced. The first prize is a scholarship worth €3,000.
The jury, composed of experts in the field, will be chaired by Augusto Lombardi (support to the Artistic Direction of the Teatro Verdi in Pisa); among the members is also the baritone Massimo Cavalletti, international star and regular guest of the world’s greatest theaters.
By clear decision of the organizing association, the Award is not limited to the classic “Contest” that ends with the awarding of prizes to the most deserving competitors, but is conceived more as a path of growth and enhancement for young opera artists, with the award ceremony being the first step. This is followed by a series of opportunities to test themselves in front of an audience and express themselves in artistic productions organized by the association and/or in collaboration with other organizations: operas, concerts, auditions.
As you may recall, the first two editions of the Borsò Prize were both a great success (over one hundred participants in the second edition).
“We are trying to strengthen and consolidate the Borsò Prize step by step,” observes Artistic Director Francesco Marchetti, “which, despite its young age, has already received widespread acclaim in the sector, thus becoming a solid point of reference on a national scale in the panorama of opera singing competitions, all with a view to and a clear and shared desire to do well and, above all, to ensure the utmost fairness of the competition, but also to provide a follow-up artistic project for the young singers who win, which can give them qualified opportunities to test themselves on stage and in front of an audience.
The Award – promoted by the association “Amici della Lirica Umberto Borsò” – enjoys the patronage of the Metropolitan City of Florence and the Municipality of Castelfiorentino, the Ente Cambiano (and with the contribution of the latter two) and is organized in collaboration with the Association “Orpheus”, the Ferruccio Busoni Music Study Center, and the Simonetta Puccini Foundation for Giacomo Puccini.
