The Cascais Conservatory of Music awakens once again to the same sounds as the day before: voices warming up, phrases being repeated, bodies seeking concentration ahead of the performance. It is the second day of auditions for Cascais Ópera 2026, and the atmosphere is the same, but the faces are different.
Today there are eleven. Eleven candidates who have spent the last few days rehearsing, observing, listening, trying not to let the wait wear them down. Whilst their twenty-eight colleagues performed yesterday, they waited their turn. Now it has come.
Two arias. The same format, the same rules, the same jury on the other side. But every voice is a different world, every choice of repertoire a statement of intent. Some have spent the night sleeping little and going over everything in their minds. Others prefer not to think and let their bodies do what they know. There is no right way to reach this moment; there is only reaching it.
With these eleven, the line-up of thirty-nine candidates who arrived in Cascais from twenty-five countries is complete. And now, over the course of these two days, everyone has had their moment before the jury. The process is complete. All that remains is the decision.
By the end of the day, the names of the semi-finalists will be announced. For thirty-nine singers, this is the moment when the road forks – and begins anew. One way or another.
And it will be up to the jury, comprising Sergei Leiferkus, Antonio Pirolli, Benjamin Schwartz, Catarina Sereno, Colin Brush, Florian Köfler, Fredrik Andersson, Ivan van Kalmthout, Juliane Banse, Karen Stone, and María Bayo … to decide who goes through …
The voices continue.
