The King of the Opera is the Tenor gala concert took place in the legendary Musikverein Concert Hall in Vienna. The winners of the International Tenors Competition José Carreras Grand Prix held by the Elena Obraztsova Foundation performed at it. The principal singer of the Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre, Honoured Artist of the Republic of Buryatia Mikhail Pirogov was among them.

The concert was organized by a jury member of the prestigious competition, opera diva Marina Meshcheryakova. The competition laureates Shota Chibirov (the 1st prize), Eugeny Lieberman (the 2nd prize) and the Grand Prix winner Andrei Danilov performed on the stage of the Musikverein. The concert’s program consisted of songs and tenor opera classics. It gained a wholehearted acceptance from the audience: the artists sang several pieces as an encore.

Star tenor José Carreras himself participated in the concert rehearsals: he passed on some valuable advice.

The competition was founded by the Elena Obraztsova Foundation and the Moscow Helikon Opera Theatre with the support of the Presidential Grants Foundation, and it was held in September 2018 in Moscow. 11 of the 65 contestants from Russia, Mongolia and China got into the third round of the competition.

According to the third round results, the jury awarded Mikhail Pirogov the Special Prize, which is the participation in the performance of the Moscow Helikon-Opera musical theatre directed by Dmitri Bertman, as well as special awards The Best Performance of an Aria from Opera of Giuseppe Verdi and For the Best Performance of an Aria from the Repertoire of José Carreras. The second award was given to Mikhail by José Carreras personally, who said that this prize is equal to the Grand Prix.