Opera Viva! Online Seminar Details
Lectures & Masterclasses July 26-30
- All sessions will be live via Zoom at the times indicated below (all times listed are Eastern Daylight Time).
- Every session will be recorded and we will send the recording links to each seminar participant for reviewing at any time.
Private Lessons: Links
On your lesson date and at your designated time, enter your lesson room by clicking on the button associated with your instructor.
Seminar Recordings and Materials
July 26 Recitative in Italian opera with Joyce Fieldsend
July 27 Opera career guidance with Gordon Ostrowski
(Note: Gordon also returns at the end of Jules Olson’s lecture on July 28 with guidance on networking)
July 27 Recit Masterclass with Filippo Ciabatti
Music for Le nozze di Figaro recit
Music for Matrimonio segreto recit
July 28 On Broadway with Jules Olson
Jules Olson PowerPoint (with embedded videos) – will download PPT to your computer
Jules Olson additional musical theater resources
July 28 Recit Masterclass with Gerardo Felisatti
Music for Cosi fan tutte recit
Music for La Cenerentola recit
July 29 Opening Night! staging workshop with David Walsh & Kristin Kenning
Kristin’s slides – will download PPT to your computer
July 30 Virtual tour of Verona
Our Opera Viva! Concert
The concert program is here.
Our concert will be streamed on Facebook on Saturday, July 31 at 1:00 pm EDT. You can find the event here, and you can share it with your friends and family. As we will have over 30 performers, we will divide the performances into two sets, with a 30-minute break in between. We will set the order of the performances at the end of the week, so that you will know when to expect your video to be broadcast.
Recording Your Performance
Here are the guidelines for performing and recording your aria. Please review them carefully and let us know if you have any questions.
- You are responsible for your own accompaniment. If you have access to a live accompanist, please use them!
- Please dress in concert attire. When we perform arias in Verona, the men wear tuxedos and the women wear gowns. Understanding that it is summer and we have given you very short notice on this, we ask that you come as close to concert attire as you can. We want you to look as great as you sound!
- DO NOT introduce yourself in the recording. For our broadcast, we are creating cover slides/title pages that will appear before each video that will have your name, the name of your aria and the composer.
- Do not bow at the end.
- Record yourself in front of a neutral background. As we heard from Gordon Ostrowski on Tuesday, the emphasis should be on you, not your environment.
- Record yourself in LANDSCAPE mode. Record yourself at least from the waist up, and full body if at all possible. Again, we want to see you!
- If you use a recorded accompaniment, please play it through external speakers, to ensure that your voice and your accompaniment are in sync. We will not have time to assist with any editing after the fact.
- Please watch your recording all the way through before you submit it to ensure that nothing glitched in the middle.
- Your recordings are due at 8:00 pm EDT on Friday, July 30. You will upload them to a shared Google Drive. Check your email for an invitation to the Google Drive, sent around 11 pm EDT on July 28. The Google Drive link has been added in this bullet point, but only allowed persons can access it. If you attempt to access it with an email address that Monica does not know, “request access” before Friday morning and I will grant it to you.
The Roberto DeSimone Memorial Aria Competition
All seminar participants may submit an entry to the Opera Viva! Italian Aria competition free of charge! Win cash prizes and scholarships! Submissions will be judged in two divisions: Collegiate (ages 18-24) and Emerging Professional (ages 25-35).
- Your competition entry is due at 8:00 pm EDT on Monday, August 2, and you may submit your concert performance or another recording of your choice.
- You will upload your entries to a shared Google Drive. The Google invitation to access this drive was sent on July 30.
Competition Prizes
Emerging Professionals
FIRST PRIZE
$1000
Emerging Professionals
SECOND PRIZE
$500
Emerging Professionals
THIRD PRIZE
$300
Collegiate
FIRST PRIZE
$750 scholarship to Opera Viva! 2022
or $500 cash
Collegiate
SECOND PRIZE
$500 scholarship to Opera Viva! 2022
or $250 cash
Collegiate
THIRD PRIZE
$250 scholarship to Opera Viva! 2022
or $150 cash
Follow Us On Social Media
We have a special request – please subscribe to our YouTube channel, and ask your friends to do the same! Our channel is fairly new, and as soon as we have 100 subscribers, we can give it a “plain English” name rather than a string of random characters. Thanks so much for helping us out!
Preparing Your Aria
The Opera Viva! faculty have assembled expert guidance on the best way to prepare a new aria. This guidance applies in any situation, but is particularly important to follow so that you can get the most out of the private lessons and classroom instruction at the end of July.
- Translate the text of the aria from Italian into English or your native language word for word. It is important that you not use an online translation engine (i.e., Google Translate) for this task, but instead that you search for “translation of <name of aria>” using your favorite search engine.
- Understand the opera’s plot, your character, and where the aria occurs within the opera’s story.
- Learn the Italian pronunciation of the aria’s text.
- Memorize the Italian text and music
Do your best to complete all of these steps before July 26.
Private Lessons: Audio Settings
The default settings in Zoom are optimized for business meetings and not for musicians! Before your first private lesson, please (1) install the Zoom app on your computer (for optimal performance, you should use a computer for your lessons, not a tablet or phone); and (2) configure your audio settings as explained in this brief 3.5 minute video.