{{Short description|Annual opera singing competition in Australia}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}} {{Use Australian English|date=August 2015}} {{Refimprove|date=May 2008}} {{For| contests organised by [[ARIA]] (Australian Recording Industry Association) |ARIA Music Awards}}
The '''Herald Sun Aria''', formerly known as '''The Sun Aria''' (because it was sponsored by ''[[The Sun News-Pictorial]]'') is a vocal competition for emerging opera singers held in Victoria, Australia, each year. The competition offers nearly $60,000 in cash prizes.<ref name=rss>{{cite web|url=https://royalsouthstreet.com.au/competition/herald-sun-aria/|title=Herald Sun Aria|website=royalsouthstreet.com.au|access-date=24 September 2018}}</ref>
The competition forms the aria section of the [[Royal South Street Eisteddfod]], Australia's oldest and largest eisteddfod. [[File:Her majestys ballarat.jpg|thumb|Her Majesty's Theatre, Ballarat, where the competition is held]]
Three of the most famous winners of the Aria competition are Wagnerian soprano [[Marjorie Lawrence]] (1928) and Dames [[Malvina Major]] (1964)<ref>[http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10484798 "New Year Honours: Big surprise for opera dame"], [[New Zealand Press Association|NZPA]] in ''[[The New Zealand Herald]]'', 31 December 2007</ref> and [[Kiri Te Kanawa]] in 1965. Others include [[June Bronhill]] (1950), [[Jonathan Summers]] (1973), [[Judith Henley]] (1976), [[Suzanne Ward]] (1984), [[Linda Thompson (artistic director)|Linda Thompson]] (1990), [[Rachelle Durkin]] (2000), and [[Nicole Car]] (2007).<ref name=rss />
The heats of the competition are held annually in August at [[Ballarat#Entertainment|Her Majesty's Theatre, Ballarat]], and the final is held at the [[Melbourne Recital Centre]] in October (previously it was held at [[Hamer Hall, Melbourne|Hamer Hall]] in the [[Arts Centre Melbourne]] in early November).<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2024-08-22 |title=100 years of Herald Sun Aria in Ballarat |url=https://timesnewsgroup.com.au/ballarat/living/100-years-of-herald-sun-aria-in-ballarat/ |access-date=2025-10-22 |website=Ballarat Times |language=en-AU}}</ref>
Contestants, who are aged 32 years or under, are required to submit four [[aria]] titles from [[grand opera]] prior to the competition, and choose one of these to sing in the heat.
Sixteen semi-finalists are selected from those singing in the heats to appear on the evening following the second heat, again at Her Majesty's Theatre and sing another aria, this time chosen from their list by the panel of adjudicators.
Six finalists are then chosen to compete in the final at the Melbourne Recital Centre.<ref>{{Cite web |title=101st Herald Sun Aria with Melbourne Opera |url=https://www.melbournerecital.com.au/whats-on/current-productions/herald-sun-aria-2025 |access-date=2025-10-22 |website=Melbourne Recital Centre |language=en}}</ref>
==Other Sun Arias== ===Sun Aria (Geelong)=== '''Comunn-na-Feinne'' is a Scots Gaelic association, founded in Geelong in 1856<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article7141096 |title=Geelong |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)]] |issue=3272 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=4 December 1856 |accessdate=21 December 2023 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> The ''Sun-Pictorial'' sponsored an Aria Prize in conjunction with Geelong's festival in 1925<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article274647333 |title=Comunn-Na-Feinne |newspaper=[[The Sun News-Pictorial]] |issue=817 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=25 April 1925 |access-date=21 December 2023 |page=31 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and subsequently. The last contest was in 1933. Notable winners include [[Marjorie Lawrence]] in 1928.
===Sun Aria (Bendigo)=== The newspaper offered similar prizes for the Bendigo musical, literary, and elocutionary competitions held in May 1925 and every year thereafter to 1936. Results 1925–1930 have not been found.
===Sun Aria (City of Sydney)=== The newspaper offered two prizes each year from 1933 to 1941, there was none held 1942–1945 and a single prize thereafter. It became a section of the [[Sydney Eisteddfod]] in 1949.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22763452 |title=Advertising |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)]] |issue=32,090 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=9 July 1949 |accessdate=22 December 2023 |page=37 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Notable prizewinners include [[Joan Sutherland]] in 1949 and June Gough, better known as [[June Bronhill]], in 1950.
==See also== *[[List of Sun Aria winners]] *[[Shell Aria]], a similar contest *[[South Street Society]], historically important *[[Mobil Quest]]
==References== {{reflist}}
[[Category:Music competitions in Australia]] [[Category:Ballarat]] [[Category:Music in Melbourne|Sun Aria]] [[Category:Opera competitions]] [[Category:Recurring events established in 1924]]