APPRENTICE/STUDENT DIRECTOR PROGRAM
Our goal is to provide aspiring stage directors of opera with relevant directorial experience and some of the necessary tools to become successful directors at an international level. With this program, students will earn a substantial credit for their CV, as well as receive 3 weeks of intense training about opera at all stages of preparation and creation, beginning with music learning, musical score dissection, translation, and vocal application, through to the process of staging and the final dress rehearsals with orchestra. The student we work with will also be able to contribute ideas in terms of costuming and props.
Besides staging a short baroque opera with the guidance Metropolitan Opera tenor Dr. Hugo Vera, the selected student will have the ability to shadow and assist Francesco Cocco, an up-and-coming young Italian director who has won awards in Belgium and abroad.
We will also offer voice lessons to directing students so that they can begin to identify viscerally with the singers and the kind of music which they will be directing. Our student director additionally receives personalized language assistance (we work in English but sing in Italian), and help from Dr. Vera to navigate the challenges of staging for opera singers while they perform difficult passages and vocal pyrotechnics. In general, there will be a wide emphasis on how to take directorial cues from the musical score itself, as well as from individual performers based on what the color of their voice and physicality suggests about staging, too.
You will also get to meet one-on-one with our orchestral conductor, Raffaele Cipriano to learn more about how a conductor draws colors, character, and drama, and how the musical score acts as an important roadmap for stage direction. Your work as a director of opera is not unlike the process that a conductor must go through. Instead of bringing out different attitudes, shapes, and sounds in the various groupings of instruments and soloists, however, you help the singers to unearth the movement implied not only by your own conception of the book, but also by the composer's musical signposts.
We are delighted that we just received a donation that allows us to offer $1,400 scholarship toward tuition for our director's apprentice, in recognition that our directing intern will be providing a valuable and visible service to the festival, even as they benefit from masterclasses, collaboration, and get to attend language and industry classes and lectures. The remaining cost of the program, $3,500, will go for housing, meals, and an otherwise rich and relevant language, stage, musical, cultural, and masterclass program that will be highly useful to aspiring directors wishing to branch off into opera.
This is also wonderful opportunity for to make connections overseas and learn about the European opera scene, as well as live with a group of talented young opera singers. Italy in particular, but also most European countries, stages a lot of baroque and chamber operas, as they are amenable to the smaller stages and resources of summer festivals and smaller towns with a nonetheless lively artistic community. It is our hope that this internship will open a wide door to new and vibrant career possibilities.
As an informal application, students are invited to email us the following:
Please email this and any other information you would like to share with us to Clara Salomon at [email protected]We will also set up a brief interview with you on the phone after receiving your application. We look forward to speaking with you!
Besides staging a short baroque opera with the guidance Metropolitan Opera tenor Dr. Hugo Vera, the selected student will have the ability to shadow and assist Francesco Cocco, an up-and-coming young Italian director who has won awards in Belgium and abroad.
We will also offer voice lessons to directing students so that they can begin to identify viscerally with the singers and the kind of music which they will be directing. Our student director additionally receives personalized language assistance (we work in English but sing in Italian), and help from Dr. Vera to navigate the challenges of staging for opera singers while they perform difficult passages and vocal pyrotechnics. In general, there will be a wide emphasis on how to take directorial cues from the musical score itself, as well as from individual performers based on what the color of their voice and physicality suggests about staging, too.
You will also get to meet one-on-one with our orchestral conductor, Raffaele Cipriano to learn more about how a conductor draws colors, character, and drama, and how the musical score acts as an important roadmap for stage direction. Your work as a director of opera is not unlike the process that a conductor must go through. Instead of bringing out different attitudes, shapes, and sounds in the various groupings of instruments and soloists, however, you help the singers to unearth the movement implied not only by your own conception of the book, but also by the composer's musical signposts.
We are delighted that we just received a donation that allows us to offer $1,400 scholarship toward tuition for our director's apprentice, in recognition that our directing intern will be providing a valuable and visible service to the festival, even as they benefit from masterclasses, collaboration, and get to attend language and industry classes and lectures. The remaining cost of the program, $3,500, will go for housing, meals, and an otherwise rich and relevant language, stage, musical, cultural, and masterclass program that will be highly useful to aspiring directors wishing to branch off into opera.
This is also wonderful opportunity for to make connections overseas and learn about the European opera scene, as well as live with a group of talented young opera singers. Italy in particular, but also most European countries, stages a lot of baroque and chamber operas, as they are amenable to the smaller stages and resources of summer festivals and smaller towns with a nonetheless lively artistic community. It is our hope that this internship will open a wide door to new and vibrant career possibilities.
As an informal application, students are invited to email us the following:
- A résumé or CV
- A brief letter of reference/recommendation from a faculty member or professional colleague.
- A brief “biography” or cover letter which fills in any relevant details that may be missing from the CV. Most important for us to know would be:
- Do you have any relevant experience with music, music theory, and/or singing? Such experience might include singing in a choir, having performed in musicals, playing piano or other instruments, taking or having taken voice lessons…
- Answer such possible question(s) as: What is your favorite opera, if any? Favorite symphonic work or composer to date? What other musical styles are or have been of interest to you?
- Any dance experience?
- Foreign language experience OR desire to learn a foreign language?
Please email this and any other information you would like to share with us to Clara Salomon at [email protected]We will also set up a brief interview with you on the phone after receiving your application. We look forward to speaking with you!
