Leese wins Sydney aria scholarship

New Zealand singer Anna Leese has won a A$30,000 ($34,586) scholarship in claiming Sydney's oldest singing competition.

Napier-born Leese, who is to study this year in London, won the McDonald's Operatic Aria, a competition which began 70 years ago as the Sun Aria.

Leese won the scholarship, A$5000 cash and a return economy airfare to undertake overseas study for the operatic stage.

She graduated two months ago from the University of Otago with a bachelor of music honours, majoring in performance singing.

Leese has won most of the major singing competitions in New Zealand, including the Mobil Song Quest and the Lockwood Aria last year.

She is enrolled in a three-year postgraduate opera course at the Royal College of Music in London.

For the finals, she performed Oh! Quante volte from I Capuleti e I Montecchi, by Bellini, and Je veux vivre from Romeo et Juliette, by Gounod.

Leese's former teacher Isabel Cunningham last year praised Leese's calmness and stamina, saying it was remarkable for someone probably still 10 years away from lyric soprano maturity.

Aucklander Na-Young Kim, also was a finalist in this year's competition. Past winners of the Sydney aria include Dame Joan Sutherland and New Zealander Heather Begg.

- NZPA