Accademia Verdiana 2024

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by Opera Charm Team

January 27, 2024

Il Corso di Alto Perfezionamento in Repertorio Verdiano offers the opportunity for 12 opera singers to achieve a vocal and theatrical preparation of excellence with some of the most renowned Verdi interpreters.

Enrolment by 11 February 2024
Selection from 21 to 23 February 2024
Lessons from 4 March 2024

Applications are now open for the 7th edition of the Corso di Alto Perfezionamento in Repertorio Verdiano of the Accademia Verdiana, the free course of excellence for 12 young opera singers, promoted by the Teatro Regio di Parma and co-financed by the European Social Fund Plus and the Emilia-Romagna Region (Operation Ref. PA 2023-20162/RER, approved by DGR n. 2096/2023 of 04/12/2023) and realised in collaboration with the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, Accademia d’arte lirica di Osimo, Comune di Parma, Assessorato alla cultura, Istituto Nazionale di Studi Verdiani, Fondazione Arturo Toscanini, Fondazione Teatro Due di Parma, Fondazione I teatri di Reggio Emilia.

Candidates must send their application to accademiaverdiana@teatroregioparma.it by Sunday 11 February 2024.

The course is aimed at opera singers who have graduated from an Afam institution or who have been trained by a private teacher, who live or are resident in Emilia-Romagna and who are at least 18 years old at the time of application. The course aims to train opera singers of the highest calibre, offering them vocal, theatrical and musical preparation under the guidance of some of the world’s leading Verdi interpreters, vocal coaches, specialist piano accompanists and leading music managers.

The educational director of the Accademia Verdiana is Francesco Izzo, musicologist, pianist and coach, Full Professor of Musicology at the University of Southampton in the UK, specialising in the study of 19th century melodrama.

“I am happy and honoured to continue my work with the Teatro Regio and the Accademia Verdiana in 2024,” says Francesco Izzo. “For me, the Accademia is a symbol of a theatre that celebrates Verdi and the heritage of melodrama with young people and with an eye to the future. The study and research that we carry out with the students of the Accademia is parallel and linked to the commitment of the Verdi Festival, which, with humility and curiosity, wants to discover and deepen all the richness and complexity of Verdi’s universe. It is certainly a question of singing well, but also of really knowing what Verdi wrote, his intentions and the performance practices of his time”.

THE SELECTION
The selections, divided into a preliminary round, a final round and an individual interview, will take place at the Teatro Regio in Parma from 21 to 23 February 2024, according to the programme indicated in the regulations published on teatroregioparma.it. The results will be published online on 24 February. The 12 admitted candidates will attend the course free of charge and will benefit from a 1,000 euro scholarship.

Among the novelties of this edition is the selection programme, which requires candidates to prepare not only three Verdi arias, but also an opera or concert aria by Mozart and an opera aria by Rossini, Bellini or Donizetti. To really sing Verdi,” explains Francesco Izzo, “we have to go back to his roots, to the repertoire that Verdi knew and referred to, and that is why the Accademia Verdiana’s didactic course also focuses on belcanto and the repertoire of the early 19th century. Hence the choice to select students also on the basis of their knowledge of the earlier repertoire and their awareness of the close link between Verdi and his predecessors”.

THE COURSE
The course will take place at the Teatro Regio di Parma from 4 March to 30 November 2024, and will last for a total of 1,000 hours, divided between lessons, masterclasses, seminars and in-depth meetings. The study and interpretation of Verdi’s repertoire and the strengthening of vocal technique will be at the heart of the course, which will also focus on the study of scenic and choreographic movements, acting techniques and in-depth historiographical studies. Modules dedicated to contractual and managerial subjects, essential for the professional profile of an artist working in the complex world of show business, complete the training offer.

The Accademia Verdiana will also be able to offer students artistic collaborations within the programme of the opera season of the Teatro Regio di Parma, the Verdi Festival and Verdi Off.

Teachers of previous editions include Silvia Dalla Benetta, Vincenzo De Vivo, Martino Faggiani, Barbara Frittoli, Sonia Ganassi, Ron Howell, Renata Lamanda, Michele Pertusi, Damiana Pinti, Anna Pirozzi, Alessandro Roccatagliati, Sebastiano Rolli, Bruno Taddia, Mary Elizabeth Williams, Riccardo Zanellato.

The complete rules of the 7th edition of the Accademia Verdiana are available on teatroregioparma.it.

For further information: accademiaverdiana@teatroregiodiparma.it.

DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE A L'OPÉRA DE PARIS

October 2024

OPERA CHARM TEAM

PREMIERE OF ‘DON CARLO’ AT WIENER STAATSOPER

September 2024

Opera Charm Team

Alice Lechner

Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.

Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.

Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Oana Zamfir

Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.

She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.

Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.

Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.

Alexandru Suciu

Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.

His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.

During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.

He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.

Cristina Fieraru

Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.

She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.

She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.

Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.

BIANCA L. NICA

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