Bel Cantanti and Catholic University Joint Summer Opera Festival

This year our festival has presented fourty two singers. Three weeks of intense coachings, vocal performance seminars, masterclasses, voice lessons and, of course, music and staging rehearsals resulted in producing a weekend of French and Viennese Opera as well as a concert of Russian Art song. of 18th through 20th centuries.

Russian Art Song, 18th through 20 century.

A recital of Russian art songs of P. Bulakhov, M. Glinka, Dargomyzhsky, A. Rubinstein, A.Borodin, P.Tchaikovsky, M. Musorgky, N. Rimsky-Korsakov, S. Rachmaninoff and others. Accompanied by the projection of the paintings of Russian fine art. Accompanied by Nicholas Catravas, Nathan Blair, Katerina Souvorova.

J. Strauss Die Fledermaus (The Bat)

Sung in German with English spoken dialogs and projected English supertitles, accompanied by BCO chamber orchestra, conducted by Joel Bourelli-Boudreau.

Ward Hall of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Catholic University, 620 Michigan Ave, Washington D.C. N.E

J. Offenbach Orphee aux Enfers (Orpheus in Underworld)

Ward Hall of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Catholic University, 620 Michigan Ave, Washington D.C. N.E

About the Festival

Two weeks of the festival will include coachings in style and interpretation,Italian, french, German diction, daily yoga sessions, various workshops, master classes and vocal performance seminars. A variety of classes will be offered in such areas as vocal technique, acting in opera, Italian, Russian and German language, audition technique, Italian recitative and more.

The purpose of this valuable workshop is to focus on developing the singing actor. The singers, their dramatic intentions and their voice will be the primary focus in each opera.

Three intense weeks of staging and music rehearsals will result in four performances of two operas: one will be staged, in costumes, and another - a concert performance with orchestra.

Staged opera:

J. Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld) in French with English Dialogs.

Concert opera:

J. Strauss Die Fledermaus(In German with English Dialogs, slightly abridged)

Dates: June 1-23, 2013

Venue: Catholic University of America.

Who: College-age and Young Professionals.

Materials:
1. Application fee $36.50 (PayPal)
2. Application (download)
3. Head shot (online and bring a hard copy for auditions)
4. Current resume (online and bring a hard copy for auditions)
5. Recent mp3 recording, Youtube or DVD if available
6. Short bio.
7. Costume measurements (download)

sent to auditions@belcantanti.com marked "Summer Festival".

Tuition: $750-1000 (Tuition is Non-Refundable after March 31, 2013).

Housing for out of town singers will be provided on campus of CUA (the cost is not included in tuition).

Payments: Pay an audition fee online with your credit card through PayPal (PayPal). You do not have to have a PayPal account and can use any major credit card.
Audition Fee is $36.50 ( $35 plus $1.50 PayPal fee).
Tuition is paid by check sent to Bel Cantanti Opera, 13007 Prairie View Pl. Germantown, MD, 20874.
Check has to be postmarked not later than February 20th, 2012.

Festival Performances: June 21, 22 and 23, 2013 at the Ward Hall of Benjamin T. Rome School of Music. All operas are accompanied by BCO chamber orchestra.

Sample Day's Schedule

9:45 am - Check In.

10:00 am - Yoga session

11:00 am - Coachings sessions / music rehearsals / staging rehearsals

2:30pm - Short break, Lunch

3:00pm - Guest-Artist Event / Master Class / Performance seminar

5:30 pm - Short Break / Dinner.

6:00pm - Music Coachings / Staging rehearsals

10:00 pm - Participants released.

Each individual schedule will be different depending on participation.

Mission of the Festival

Our mission was greatly understood and supported by late critic emeritus of the Washington Post, Joseph McLellan, who wrote:

"As often as I have enjoyed rich costumes, elaborate scenery, spectacular stage effects and a virtuoso orchestra in opera productions from Vienna to San Francisco, I keep coming back to the idea that the voices are what matter the most, the reason that people choose to go to an opera rather than a spoken play that is likely to come across with more clarity and logic.
Next to voices, I would put acting skills: the ability to portray character and tell a story while singing, usually, in a foreign language.

Opera Bel Cantanti reaffirmed my long-held belief that we are living in a golden age of opera. And my hope that opera, specifically opera in America, has a promising future. Bel Cantanti is not prominent among America's thousand-plus opera companies, and perhaps never will be. But it makes the special magic of opera happen."