Study workshops and work experience:
technique, style, and performance of Italian Belcanto
Artistic director: Silvia Colasanti
Music director: Fabio Luisi
ACADEMIC YEAR 2025 |
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 MiC by means of the Fondo Nazionale per lo Spettacolo dal Vivo, the “Celletti” Academy is one of the 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 Institute by the Ministry for cultural assets and activities.
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 Silvia Colasanti 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 2025 is made up of 40 days of study divided in three sessions:
• SESSION ONE: from 18th February to 4th March 2025
• SESSION TWO: from 23rd April to 4th May 2025
• SESSION THREE: from 10th to 23rd June 2025
These days of study will be complemented by work-experience during the 51th 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.
TEACHERS
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 of Opera performance
Vocal technique
Physiology and hygiene of the vocal instrument
Diction and interpretation of musical dramaturgy
Acting technique and recitation workshop
Opera coaching
Performance master-class
Performance practice of the baroque repertoire
Culture of the operatic performer as a profession
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 31th December 1992.
There are eighteen seats available for academic year 2025.
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 20th December 2024 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 2025”.
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 on 31/12/2024.
AUDITIONS
Auditions for Academic year 2025 are planned in:
Vienna, 10th January 2025
London, 12 th January 2025
Martina Franca, from 21st to 23rd January 2025
Auditions for Academic year 2025 are open exclusively to candidates who have successfully passed the pre-selection test. 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 2025 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 by heart 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.
At least one of the arias must come from the Italian repertoire of the 18th or 19th century (until 1840).
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 2025”
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 2025 will be published on the website of the Fondazione Paolo Grassi at the end of all auditions
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 in at least 2 study sessions.
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
