San Marino is home to a great voice competition, named after Italian soprano Renata Tebaldi, who spent the later part of her life in San Marino. The competition is supported jointly by the San Marino-based Renata Tebaldi Foundation, which seeks to support young operatic talent, and by La Scala and San Carlo, two of the most important opera houses in Italy (and honestly, the world). There’s two sections – opera and ancient / baroque. The whole competition is held in San Marino, with singers coming from all over the world, accompanied by the San Marino Symphony Orchestra.

There’s a lot of great performances to go through, most of the finals are on Youtube. Here’s a few I really liked – some floaty Verdi:

Do bases ever get to have non-tormented characters?

Pulling out the big guns with the Queen of the Night aria:

Okay, maybe baritones get the even more tormented solos. Hard to top “I believe in a cruel god” from Otello: