Our Mission is:
To help young artists develop and refine their skills in Italian opera
The Nashville Bel Canto Foundation is an educational training program for young opera singers designed to prepare talented, young students for the professional business of opera. The Bel Canto program will give them a deep understanding of Italian singing, theatrical stage craft, and the traditions of the operatic art form.
The program will assist young opera singers in expanding their understanding of what it takes to have a successful career in the professional world.
This is a Performance based program
Whereas many programs are focused on developing the voice, we base our teaching on understanding the unwritten rules of life on stage with the hands-on experience of learning a full role. The participants intensive study will culminate in the performance of a fully staged opera with orchestra, under the supervision of established professionals.
The course
The optimal candidate for this course is a freshly graduated singer (BM, MM) with a sincere desire for a professional career and who has little or no experience onstage in a professional production. The course develops in two separated phases:
1. The Warm up
-10 days-
This is when our students will be immersed in Italian traditions including diction, acting, Italian singing, career advice and stage psychology. A select group of coaches, instructors, directors, and professional opera singers will guide them in how to learn a role, how to understand the unwritten rules of life on stage, and how to become a competent and respected artist who knows what it means to be a part of the complicated mechanism of opera preparation and production.
2. Action!
-20 days-
We will move to the rehearsal room and where the students will prepare to perform a fully staged opera with orchestra. They will participate in staging and musical rehearsals led by a professional stage director and conductor. At the end of this phase, students will present a live, fully staged performance of the production for the public in a venue in Nashville.
