Opera is coming to Ottawa, but with a twist that gives this event an American Idol-meets-Puccini flavour.
Opera Ottawa Association announced the inaugural year of their newest event, the Festival of Inspiration, in a press release.
The festival is a celebration of emerging talent that will take place the first week of September 2014. It will bring together students studying opera from all over the world, and provide them with a rare opportunity to learn and improve from some of the industry’s most illustrious figures.
Auditions are being held worldwide, in cities like Copenhagen, Denmark, and New York City. Students must perform two arias—a melody for one voice—in contrasting styles. One of the arias must be sung in Italian.
Auditioning hopefuls must also provide a headshot, resumé, and two reference letters from varying musical authorities.
Once they’re in Ottawa, the 40 chosen students will receive private vocal lessons and coaching, attend yoga, and participate in stage acting and master classes over the course of the week.
“The whole entire workshop is an education-based workshop,” said Cameron Grant, artistic director and co-founder of the festival.
As to why so few students will get the chance to participate, Grant said it’s all to do with numbers.
“This number will essentially allow for each and every student to have as much time as possible with each and every master, there being 10 masters and 40 students,” he said. “We find that if we had more, let’s say 60 or 70 students, they wouldn’t necessarily get the time they need with the certain masters.”
At the end of the festival, eight students will be chosen to compete in a student recital, with the winner walking away with the $5,000 Maria Pellegrini Scholarship for Artistic Excellence.
“Of course, on top of that, there will also be a recital for all the masters to perform as well,” Grant said.
The reason why these renowned masters chose Ottawa to host the festival is fairly simple.
“We chose Ottawa specifically because all of the directors of the board are in Ottawa at the moment, and being the capital, it really draws . . . a big entity in Europe and in the States,” Grant said. “We’re really hoping to draw a lot of attraction in terms of tourism . . . On top of that, there isn’t anything of this nature in North America, that we know of.”
As for what inspired co-founders Grant and Canadian tenor Dustin Hiles—that lies in the music.
“My inspiration personally, is that, coming from a violinist’s point of view, I emit all my emotions through a piece of wood, an instrument, my best friend,” Grant said.
“But an opera singer is stripped bare of all of those luxuries, and they have to work with every aspect of their body,” he said. “It’s a lot of work to get to hone those skills, or bare yourself on the stage like that to convey your emotions. And to me, I think that that is obviously a very difficult task, but a very beautiful one at that.”
