What is Scenic Opera: Collaborative?
The idea for a Collaborative learning project for artists working in opera was born out of a desire to share the process of learning and training with other people. By sharing the process, we can add more value to our learning, we can set a specific amount of time to focus on one skill, and we can share the cost. We wanted to move away from many of the current training practices in opera training, and built the project based on several important guidelines.
- All fees for Collaboratives are based on the actual costs involved. Staff get paid a fair rate, and a small amount goes towards the company running costs.
- Collaboratives are designed to be educational, and not dependent on fulfilling specific roles in operas, which can lead to bias and inequality.
- The singers on the Collaborative all pay the same amount, and there is no discrimination based on gender, age, voice type, or any other arbitrary division. We keep the price of the Collaborative as low as possible, and we do not offer scholarships.
- The cost of the Collaborative is shared equally between participants. There is a minimum number of participants required to enable the Collaborative to run. Where it is possible, once we have reached a minimum participation, the fee per participant drops, as the total cost of the project is shared between more people.
- There is a cap on the number of participants to ensure everyone receives the same amount of individual attention, and to maintain the quality of the teaching. Should demand for a particular Collaborative be higher than the cap, the Collaborative may be repeated.
- Extra value is offered in keeping individual sessions in the Collaborative open to all participants, to make the courses truly 'collaborative'. For example; participants are encouraged to observe individual coaching sessions to learn more about their own role, a scene their character is in, the opera in general, or to pick up transferable skills. It is therefore actually beneficial to have more than one participant studying the same role.
- There will never be an application fee for Collaboratives, and there is no age limit.
Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much. – Helen Keller
Next Collaboratives
Ariadne auf NaxosPostponed - dates TBC
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Lied Weekend : Frauenliebe und Leben9th - 10th April 2022
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Tannhäuser30th April - 8th May 2022
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Götterdämmerung: Extended Project11th June - 3rd July 2022
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Collaborative Types
Having had success with our first Collaborative format, we have decided to expand our offerings, and offer some new formats.
Standard format
Spaced over nine days, starting on a Saturday and ending the following Sunday. This type of Collaborative allows for our full-group sessions at the weekends, a focus on coaching through the weekdays, with group character development sessions and a public lecture on the Wednesday.
Price range £300-£375 per artist
Between 6-12 participants
Upcoming collaboratives in this format include: Ariadne auf Naxos, Tannhäuser.
Lied Weekends
A mini version of our standard format, these take place over just one weekend, and focus specifically and Lieder. They consist of two group sessions of 3 hours. The first of these, taking place on the Saturday, consists of an introduction to the history and background of the poetry, and a group read-through coaching. On Sunday, everyone gets an individual coaching session, and we join back together in the evening to sing through the cycle together.
Price £100
4-8 participants
Upcoming collaboratives in this format include: Frauenliebe und leben
Extended Project
Building on the format of our standard collaborative, this new extended project format is designed for longer works that need more dedicated time. The work is split over several weekends, each focussing on an act or section. The weekends will focus on a guided read / sing through the entire act, repeating sections, and working in depth to understand the language and character's motivations. Individual coaching will be scheduled through the weeks between the acts. In the middle of the project, we will all come together for our character development sessions, and for the public lecture.
This flexible format means that participants can book for whichever acts or sections they need, and specify which coaching package they want (3, 6, or 9 sessions).
Price range £300-£850
6 - ?? participants. Maximum 12 per weekend.
The first of these extended projects will be on Wagner's Götterdämmerung.
Standard format
Spaced over nine days, starting on a Saturday and ending the following Sunday. This type of Collaborative allows for our full-group sessions at the weekends, a focus on coaching through the weekdays, with group character development sessions and a public lecture on the Wednesday.
Price range £300-£375 per artist
Between 6-12 participants
Upcoming collaboratives in this format include: Ariadne auf Naxos, Tannhäuser.
Lied Weekends
A mini version of our standard format, these take place over just one weekend, and focus specifically and Lieder. They consist of two group sessions of 3 hours. The first of these, taking place on the Saturday, consists of an introduction to the history and background of the poetry, and a group read-through coaching. On Sunday, everyone gets an individual coaching session, and we join back together in the evening to sing through the cycle together.
Price £100
4-8 participants
Upcoming collaboratives in this format include: Frauenliebe und leben
Extended Project
Building on the format of our standard collaborative, this new extended project format is designed for longer works that need more dedicated time. The work is split over several weekends, each focussing on an act or section. The weekends will focus on a guided read / sing through the entire act, repeating sections, and working in depth to understand the language and character's motivations. Individual coaching will be scheduled through the weeks between the acts. In the middle of the project, we will all come together for our character development sessions, and for the public lecture.
This flexible format means that participants can book for whichever acts or sections they need, and specify which coaching package they want (3, 6, or 9 sessions).
Price range £300-£850
6 - ?? participants. Maximum 12 per weekend.
The first of these extended projects will be on Wagner's Götterdämmerung.
"Working on Marschallin with Scenic Opera has been a tremendously valuable and enjoyable experience! Starting with a table read and being able to process the text at a deeper level with other artists while having our German shaped and guided by Mariella was an invaluable way to put text to music. Wendy provided history and performance guidance and all the artists showed huge amounts of growth in only a 10 day period. I will definitely be learning future roles with Scenic Opera!"
- Sara Stejskal, Soprano
Idaho, USA
Who are we looking for?
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Think you're ready to join us? Apply Now!
Past Events
Study Die Walküre - December 2021The second Collaborative took place in December 2021 with singers working on roles and scenes from Wagner's Die Walküre. Participants joins us from New York, Idaho, Melbourne, and Vermont, and we opened out first Public Lecture as part of the collaborative project.
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German Diction in Der Rosenkavalier - August 2021Our first Collaborative took place in August 2021. Some singers chose to prepare whole roles, some focussed on the important sections of the role, and all of them contributed to each others' learning in group-working sessions, and by supporting each other. As well as extensive individual diction coaching, participants worked in groups to speak through the text, and to begin to open up their understanding of the characters in this opera.
At the end of the course, we came back together in two sessions to perform scene and excerpts for each other, in a masterclass format. The whole course took place via Zoom, and we had participants from New York, Idaho, Colorado, and London, all working with Mariella Baier in Bremen, Germany. |
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German Diction Masterclass - July 2021Mariella Baier led Scenic Opera artists in a German Diction masterclass with arias of their choice. Watch each artist's session at this playlist:
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