Program Basics (lyric/vocal program)
Dates: May 31 - June 21, 2020
Included in the Opera Program are:
7:00 - 10:00 Breakfast buffet at the hotel, open seating
9:15 -12:30 1.5 hour Italian lessons with off hour(s) for practice. Italian Language Class (MWF) / Acting classes (T/TH)
12:30-1:30 Lunch lectures together in group, or lunch on your own
1:30-4:30 Private coachings and lessons with off hours for rest and practice
4:30 - 6:30 Orchestral & Conductor rehearsals
6:50 - 8:00 Group Dinners
8:15 - 10:00 Staging, and/or Orchestra rehearsals
Price per person - double room occupancy, $5,100
Single rooms may be available on request depending on availability; if available, there will be a supplemental charge.
Orvieto is a splendid and renown medieval city. Our housing and beautiful hospitality provided by the Hotel Posta situated in the antique Palazzo Guidoni, just paces away from the Duomo. Breakfast and alignment classes in the garden, masterclasses in the churches, practice in the city's school of music. Five evenings a week we reconvene to dine together and share experiences after a long day of rehearsals, language classes, and practice.
Click here to be taken to details about what is additionally included in programs for opera, collaborative pianists, and stage direction interns. This year we also feature an auditor program.
Included in the Opera Program are:
- Opera: Guaranteed performance of a full-length role with professional chamber orchestra in at least one of two operas. Fully-staged. Venues are historic and professional.
- Voice Lessons & Regular Coaching / Role Preparation: At least four, private one-hour lessons weekly with faculty geared toward specific application to learning new music and assigned operatic roles. Last year students who had the energy engaged in more than TWENTY hours of private coaching and lessons. We boast a nearly 1:2 student:faculty ratio.
- Conductor Coaching: One-hour lessons with an Italian conductor.
- Dramatic Coachings & Scene Staging: Rehearsals geared toward the final performance, addressing personal needs as well as important tools of role development.
- Multiple performances in historic theaters, halls, and piazzas. Many in collaboration with Orvieto's historic cultural and religious festivals. Click here for last season's Performance Schedule
- Language Instruction: Regular intensive language courses balancing the career-singer’s need for conversational proficiency with the ability to interpret the older, poetic language of opera quickly and effectively. Optional conversation group at lunchtime by request.
- Acting workshops during the first 2 weeks for all the reasons you might want to pursue acting as a singer! And to get us primed for all of our performances, as well as to enhance our group rapport.
- Mind-Body-Spirit Regular Feldenkrais (postural and somatic alignment) classes, meditation, yoga/stretching, meditation, and other techniques to anchor focus and attention offered in the hotel’s private courtyard or park every morning and some Saturdays! Between the classes, walking, and healthy food, we want you to leave feeling better than when you arrived with a toolbox full of ways to maintain and develop equilibrium as you embark on a professional career.
- Connections to photographers, journalists, coaches, conductors, mentors, and networks in Italy and greater Europe.
- Lifestyle: Lunch lectures series about the business of singing and the art of living as a singer in the real world.
- Sample Daily Schedule Weeks 1-2 with Rotating Private Lessons and Coachings, Week 3 more focused on staging:
7:00 - 10:00 Breakfast buffet at the hotel, open seating
9:15 -12:30 1.5 hour Italian lessons with off hour(s) for practice. Italian Language Class (MWF) / Acting classes (T/TH)
12:30-1:30 Lunch lectures together in group, or lunch on your own
1:30-4:30 Private coachings and lessons with off hours for rest and practice
4:30 - 6:30 Orchestral & Conductor rehearsals
6:50 - 8:00 Group Dinners
8:15 - 10:00 Staging, and/or Orchestra rehearsals
- Location: Orvieto, Italy, located in the province of Umbria, one of Italy’s premier cultural heritage cities just one hour north of Rome.
- Lodging: At the charming Hotel Posta in the city center, just around the corner from the Duomo.
- Meals: Included are breakfast and 5 dinners a week in an intimate group setting. Meals are shared with faculty. Emphasis on healthy, local options whenever possible (gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan options). Breakfast from 7-10am daily with eggs and some gluten free bakery items. A small supermarket is just 10 steps from the hotel, including a deli section where you can buy the goods to make a fairly incredible sandwich, salad, or have sides of prepared vegetables. Singers and faculty both found it incredibly easy to eat a very low-cost lunch (3-6 Euro) that included very healthy, organic (or organic-style), and gluten free items.
- Tuition, all-inclusive of program, excluding flight: $4,500.
- Deposit: To accept a role or position with us, we require a $450, non-refundable deposit. We do work hard with singers to hold roles as they wait for scholarship monies and other funds to come in, but we learned the hard way that waiting too long means that we may be leaving ourselves an open space to fill just moments before the program begins. Because we have contracted with professional theaters and media, we have a standard to uphold. As well, while it would be profitable to accept many more singers as the applications in, we are committed to being a top-quality program, and so have intentionally space-limited our numbers. Last season we turned away over 30 extremely qualified, wonderful singers for a single role.
Price per person - double room occupancy, $5,100
Single rooms may be available on request depending on availability; if available, there will be a supplemental charge.
Orvieto is a splendid and renown medieval city. Our housing and beautiful hospitality provided by the Hotel Posta situated in the antique Palazzo Guidoni, just paces away from the Duomo. Breakfast and alignment classes in the garden, masterclasses in the churches, practice in the city's school of music. Five evenings a week we reconvene to dine together and share experiences after a long day of rehearsals, language classes, and practice.
Click here to be taken to details about what is additionally included in programs for opera, collaborative pianists, and stage direction interns. This year we also feature an auditor program.
