Study workshops and work experience:
technique, style, and performance of Italian Belcanto
Artistic director: Sebastian F. Schwarz
Music director: Fabio Luisi
ACADEMIC YEAR 2023 |
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
STRUCTURE and OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE
The Accademia del Belcanto “Rodolfo Celletti” of Martina Franca is promoted and organised by the Fondazione Paolo Grassi in collaboration with the Festival della Valle d’Itria. It was founded in 2010 to provide young opera singers with high education in the different aspects of technique, style, and performance of Italian Belcanto (from Monteverdi to proto-Romanticism), including the analysis and practice of several other aspects of Western music theatre, including some of its most modern music expressions.
Supported by MIBACT by means of the FUS, the “Celletti” Academy is one of the nine Italian organisations to have received the recognition of “School of national excellence operating in the field of the highest music education” from the General Management of Libraries and Cultural Institutions (D.M. n. 433 of the 15/10/2018, in accordance with art. 1 law 2015 of 2017).
The programme includes several performance practice workshops, combined with technical and aesthetic belcanto specificities: from seventeenth-century “recitar cantando” to expressions of the Apulian/Neapolitan School; from the technique of coloratura to the art of Italian early nineteenth-century variation. Students may enjoy hands-on practical artistic experiences with the Festival della Valle d’Itria, trained by established coaches, performers and musicians. The programme also boasts sections for further study dedicated to Baroque belcanto, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Neapolitan school, and the Lieder repertoire, with specific master-classes and one-to-one lessons with teachers and artists of international fame.
Maestros Sebastian F. Schwarz and Fabio Luisi, respectively Artistic and Music Directors of the Accademia del Belcanto and of the Festival della Valle d’Itria, will coordinate the teaching and artistic plan.
CALENDAR
Academic year 2023 is made up of 40 days of study divided in three sessions:
• SESSION ONE: from 26th April to 7th May 2023
• SESSION TWO: from 10th to 25th June 2023
• SESSION THREE: from 23rd October to 4th November 2023
These days of study will be complemented by work-experience during the 49th Festival della Valle d’Itria, as well as concerts and music productions by the Fondazione Paolo Grassi, and will result in a contract of collaboration, and compensation commensurate with the commitment.
SUBJECTS
Art and technique of seventeenth-century vocality
Art and technique of belcanto coloratura
Art and performance of belcanto
Basics of belcanto
Style and technique of belcanto
Score analysis
History and performance practice of Italian opera
Vocal technique
Physiology and hygiene of the vocal instrument
Operatic diction
Elements of verse analysis in relation to dramaturgy
Acting technique and recitation workshop
Opera coaching
Body awareness, posture, vocality and body language
Physiotherapy applied to the performing arts
Psychological training of the musician
Performance master-classes
Performance master-class in Baroque belcanto
Performance master-class in lieder repertoire
Master-class: Culture of the operatic performer as a profession
Master-class: Career Training
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS FOR THE PRELIMINARY SELECTION
The courses of the Accademia del Belcanto “Rodolfo Celletti” have limited seats. The selection is open to candidates who have reached 18 years of age by the date of the audition, and who were born after 31 December 1990.
There are fifteen seats available for academic year 2023.
To access the courses, students must pass a preliminary pre-selection test on the basis of qualifications and video recordings. A live audition examination is reserved exclusively for those candidates who have passed the pre-selection test.
The Board of Directors of the Academy has the right to admit to the course those singers who, on the occasion of music productions, contests, or ex-tempore auditions, have received recognitions for their artistic merits, and show a special inclination for the belcanto repertoire.
Non-EU candidates, or candidates residing in non-EU countries, must conform to the current norms and regulations to access the selection process.
Candidates will be at an advantage if they are in possession of:
• a Conservatoire diploma or equivalent qualification;
• professional experiences in the field of opera, through participation in operatic performances or concerts which the judging panel consider artistically valuable.
ENROLMENT
The deadline for application requests (complete with a full-figure photograph, CV, and video recordings) is
the 19 February 2023 Students must complete and submit the application on:
https://www.fondazionepaolograssi.it/registrazione-accademiabelcanto.aspx
Printed applications, fax, or postal submissions will not be accepted.
The Fondazione Paolo Grassi declines all responsibility towards potential technical and/or web issues which may impede the correct submission of applications.
PRE-SELECTION
For the pre-selection test, candidates must submit a video recording of a piece of their choice from their repertoire (please note: audio recordings with no video will not be accepted).
The file of the video recording can be sent:
a) via the dedicated online application form (indicating, where available, the links to YouTube, Vimeo, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.)
OR
b) via WeTransfer to the following email address: accademia@fondazionepaolograssi.it
In the WeTransfer message the candidate must specify name and surname, and the wording “Preselezione Accademia Belcanto 2023”.
Pre-selections do not require a participation fee.
Participation to the preliminary pre-selection does not guarantee the candidate’s access to the courses of the Accademia del Belcanto. Access to the courses is subject to successfully passing the audition, judged by the Board whose opinion is final.
Eligibility to take the audition will be communicated by e-mail within a week of receiving the video attached to the application form.
AUDITIONS
Auditions for Academic year 2023 are planned in:
Berlin, 27 th and 28 th February 2023
Martina Franca, from 4 th to 6 th March 2023
Seville, 13 th March 2023
Auditions for Academic year 2023 are open exclusively to candidates who have successfully passed the pre-selection test; they will be notified via e-mail and invited to indicate a preference for the date and place of the audition. Candidates will receive details of the call for the audition directly via e-mail at the address supplied in the application form.
Each candidate can sit the audition for Academic Year 2023 only once, in one of the three available dates, according to the chosen date indicated on the application form.
All candidates must prepare three arias for the audition, complete with recitative and cabaletta (where available) in the original key. The arias must come from the Italian, French, German, or English repertoires, 1600-1840.
At least one of the arias must be nineteenth-century Italian belcanto.
A seventeenth-century aria is optional.
The examining Board may choose to listen to all or part of the programme indicated in the application form. The Board may also require first-sight reading of a medium-difficulty score.
During the auditions, the candidates will have an assistant conductor on the piano available for them.
Participants may decide to be accompanied on the piano by his/her own assistant conductor, whose expenses they must provide for themselves.
Should the admin office require it, candidates may need to submit a copy of the score of the pieces selected for the audition at the following address:
accademia@fondazionepaolograssi.it
In order to participate to the auditions, all candidates must pay a participation fee of € 50,00 into the account of the Fondazione Paolo Grassi, at BANCA INTESA SANPAOLO, at the following details:
• IBAN: IT 51 I 03069 09606 100000002715
• BIC code: BCITITMM
• Reason: “Audizione Accademia Belcanto 2023”
All candidates must bring the receipt of the banker’s order on the day of the audition.
Candidates cannot sit the audition without having paid the enrolment fee.
The fee is non-refundable in case of no-show at the auditions.
ATTENDANCE
The list of candidates admitted to the courses of the Accademia del Belcanto for academic year 2022 will be published on the website of the Fondazione Paolo Grassi by the 20th March 2023
Participation to the courses is free for all admitted students. Attendance is mandatory for no less than 70% of the total planned hours of classes.
Absence for serious health reason must be backed by medical documentation and communicated immediately to the Director’s Office.
Lack of attendance will result in exclusion from the course.
VENUE
Classes will take place at the Fondazione Paolo Grassi in Martina Franca.
The staff of the Fondazione Paolo Grassi and the Directors of the Accademia can provide information and support for accommodation at set prices.
COLLABORATION CONTRACT
Students selected to take part in the work-experience productions will hold a collaboration contract and granted a fee commensurate with the commitment required.
ATTENDANCE CERTIFICATE
At the end of the course, the Accademia del Belcanto will release a certificate to all attendees who have successfully completed their study programme.
TREATMENT OF PERSONAL DATA
In accordance with D.Lgs. 30th June 2003 n.196 (Regulation of personal data protection), all personal data provided by the candidates in the enrolment forms will be collected by the Fondazione Paolo Grassi for the management of the present selection procedure. Candidates may assert their rights in accordance with D.Lgs. 30 June 2003 n.196 against the holder of data treatment of the Fondazione Paolo Grassi.
INFO AND CONTACTS
Accademia del Belcanto "Rodolfo Celletti"
c/o Fondazione Paolo Grassi
Via Metastasio, 20
74015 - Martina Franca (TA), Italy
telephone: +39 080 4306763
e-mail: accademia@fondazionepaolograssi.it
website: www.fondazionepaolograssi.it
How to reach Martina Franca
