Anaheim Soprano Wins Busseto Verdi Prize : Top Honors for Deborah Voigt Include Cash, Concert Dates in Milan, Switzerland

Soprano Deborah Voigt, 28, of Anaheim has won the top prize in the annual international Busseto Verdi Competition in Busseto, Italy.

Voigt was selected last month from 12 finalists chosen from hundreds who had entered the Concorso Internazionale Per Voce Verdiane. The prize was cash and concert dates in Milan and Switzerland.

At the final concert of the competition, she sang “Tacea la Notte” from Verdi’s “Il Trovatore.”

In October, Voigt was one of 40 winners in the Opera Company of Philadelphia-Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition, held in Philadelphia.

She was the only singer from Southern California to win from a field that began with 1,500.

A graduate of Cal State Fullerton, Voigt shared top honors at the Metropolitan Opera Western Regional Auditions in Los Angeles in 1984.

The following year she went on to the Merola Opera Program, a 10-week training program for young singers at the San Francisco Opera.

She returned to her alma mater in 1985 to sing the role of Donna Anna in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.” Since then, she has been heard locally in recital on several occasions.

She made her New York debut in April as soprano soloist in “Verdi’s Requiem,” with the Manhattan Philharmonic conducted by Galen Marshall. She also was soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Brooklyn Philharmonic conducted by Lukas Foss in May.