DATE: Mediterranean Opera Studio and Festival Summer Program will be held from July 3 through August 6, 2017 (Arrival Catania Fontanarossa Airport July 2nd, and departure August 7th).
APPLICATION DEADLINE: Our application deadline has been extended to May 31, 2017. While deadlines may be flexible, the availability of roles will diminish with time.
SCHOLARSHIPS: There are no scholarships for 2017.
AUDITIONS: If you are applying for a principal role in one of our opera productions, YOU MUST send a video of you singing the aria from your selected role. However, even if accepted for the role, you must send by June 1 a video of the entire role OFF BOOK to jlivigni@2uarts.com. Failure to do so will automatically disqualify you from singing the role.
Program details
Opera singers, orchestra musicians, conductors, stage directors and managers – all have the chance to collaborate in bringing to life the MOS Festival in Eastern Sicily. MOSF is first and foremost a training program. Our training program has the goal of preparing artists for Opera, and not of giving performance opportunities. Performing is part of our training, but not the essential ingredient.
Mediterranean Opera Studio and Festival’s program gives training opportunities to:
- Opera singers seeking to perfect their vocal and artistic abilities and wishing to perform in opera roles
- Opera singers seeking technical and artistic development, but not interested in performing in the opera festival
- Orchestra musicians will have the opportunity to perform both in opera and in symphonic/chamber concerts.
- Assistant conductors and stage directors have the opportunity to collaborate with conductors and directors that have worked with major opera companies.
Work in a collaborative way with your mentor and develop a greater understanding of both artistic and practical aspects of your art.
Singers Your daily schedule at MOSF will be intense. You will work with your voice instructor, coaching staff, dramatic coach, with orchestra, etc. Your voice instructor and coaches will help you master technical and musical aspects of the roles you will be singing, or of concert/audition pieces you would like to prepare. You can apply to MOSF with the intention of not participating in operas as lead singers, but rather perfecting your audition repertoire, or simply working on your technique. We will tailor the program to your particular goals to the best of our abilities. All singers will participate in chorus on nights when they are not singing lead roles.
Orchestra musicians will work daily in preparation of both opera and symphonic repertoire.
Assistant Conductors will help Maestri in preparation for Opera and Symphonic repertoire and have opportunities to put in practice what they learn in shows by conducting in our run of Barbiere di Siviglia. They will also assist in preparing singers for their roles in Barbiere.
Assistant Directors and Stage Managers will work in collaboration with our directors in producing our shows.
Projected Schedule is as follows:
July 3 – 14: Italian (1 hour M-F), Coaching (Individual 2 – 30 minute sessions – and coaching for performance assignments daily M-F), Staging daily M-F, Daily Voice Masterclasses (6 participants per day – singers take turns).
July 17 – August 4: Italian (1 hour M-F), Coaching (Individual 2 – 30 minute sessions – and coaching for performance assignments daily M-F), Voice Lesson (30 minute daily M-F)
Orchestra starts rehearsals July 3 (daily M-F) and will prepare all material intensely over the first 3 weeks. The last two weeks will be lighter with evening performances.
Saturdays and Sundays are off except when performing.
Repertoire 2017
2017 Festival Schedule includes:
- La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini
- Il Barbiere di Siviglia by Gioacchino Rossini
- Così fan tutte by W.A. Mozart
- Tosca by Giacomo Puccini (Concert Version)
- Opera concerts featuring selections from operas to be performed with orchestra
- Symphonic and chamber music for orchestra
Every opera will be presented 5 times (potentially with 5 different casts depending on number of qualified participants). Every role will also have a cover. Every artist, when not performing their assigned role will participate in chorus. No exceptions. We will provide parts to orchestra and musical cuts for all, and every singer must arrive at MOSF completely off book with assigned roles and with assigned chorus music. Failure to comply warrants expulsion from the program.
Singers will receive assignments to roles in their welcome letter. Failure to arrive off book will automatically disqualify you for participation as a lead singer in productions. No singer will be allowed to perform if MOSF deems the role too difficult for the singer. ALL PARTICIPATION AS LEAD ROLE SINGERS IS ENTIRELY AT THE DISCRETION OF MOSF.
Costs
There will be absolutely no refunds whatsoever under any circumstances for tuition. Costs are largely negotiated and paid for (non refundable) ahead of time in order to secure low prices that allow tuition to be affordable. Please divide the cost of tuition for 35 days of participation to get an idea of how much value you receive daily.
(Plan A Vocalists) $5,900 [includes breakfast and lunch at our facility every day, housing (single occupancy room), laundry service, transportation to and from airport*, vocal studies and coaching, masterclasses with guests, Italian class 5 days per week, all performances, transportation to MOS events, programmed tourism].
(Plan B Vocalists) $5,100[does not include housing or meals, includes all other – if you eat at our facility you must pay 10 euro per meal]
(Auditing Only) $3,500 [Includes all of plan A except studies. These participants will audit all MOS events.]
Assistant Conductors: $3,500 (Includes benefits of Plan A)
Stage Managers/Assistant Directors: $3,500 (Includes benefits of Plan A)
Orchestra musicians: $1,000. They will receive all of the above benefits.
All participants are responsible for their own airfare to Catania.
First segment of tuition is the non refundable housing deposit of $1,000 to be paid within 5 days of acceptance of your application.
$2,500 will be due by February 1st. If you enroll after February 1st, then this portion will be due with housing deposit (total $3,500) within 5 days of acceptance of your application.
Balance of tuition will be due by May 1, 2017.
(We have a Tuition Payment Portal available here. We suggest payment by check to avoid fees for PayPal usage.)
Failure to follow timetable of tuition payment will result in your exclusion from program.
Tuition is non-refundable under any circumstances.
* In order to be eligible for airport transportation, you must arrive within a specific window on check in day as follows:
- Arrival Catania Fontanarossa Airport July 2, pickup at 3:00 and 6:00 pm
- Departure Fontanarossa August 7th.