Teatro Lirico Sperimentale

The Teatro Lirico Sperimentale di Spoleto was founded in 1947 by Adriano Belli, lawyer and musicologist, with the aim of helping young singers to start a career in opera, above all students who had already completed their singing studies and were gifted with artistic qualities, but had not yet made their artistic debut. The organization's offices are located in Spoleto, Italy.

Winners of the singing competition at the "Sperimentale of Spoleto" attend a two years course where they are trained in several subjects not included in school programmes: preparation of opera, of course, but also training in stage movement under the guidance of the directors and conductors who will later put on the operas during the Debut Opera Season. There are three phases: in March the Competition for young singers of the European Community takes place, and the International Board of Examiners chooses the candidates. The winners will be the candidates that obtain an average mark of 8 out of 10. The following stage involves five months of training course aimed to the artistic debut of the students. During this time diction, mime, and acting courses are taught, together with vocal proficiency courses. In the last period of preparation the singers study the roles chosen by the Artistic Director for their debut. The Opera Season is aimed to show the result of the training courses and is usually held in Spoleto in September. The operas to be performed are chosen on the basis of the students' vocal character, however for didactical reasons it is indispensable that students learn an opera from the sixteen/seventeenth century, one from the eighteenth century and one from the nineteenth century. Students receive a scholarship and live together in Spoleto.

Many great names on the international opera scene have won the Competition at the "Sperimentale", studied at Spoleto and made their debut in the Istitution's Opera Season; for instance Cesare Valletti, Franco Corelli, Antonietta Stella, Anita Cerquetti, Giangiacomo Guelfi, Ettore Bastianini, Anna Moffo, Gabriella Tucci, Marcella Pobbe, Rolando Panerai, Margherita Rinaldi, Franco Bonisolli, Giorgio Merighi, Leo Nucci, Ruggero Raimondi, Renato Bruson, Mietta Sighele, Veriano Luchetti, Salvatore Fisichella and then Luciana D'Intino, Mariella Devia, Lucia Aliberti; in the last few years Marcello Giordani, Natale De Carolis, Giusy Devinu, Elisabeth Norberg-Schulz, Giuseppe Morino, Monica Bacelli, Roberto Frontali, Nuccia Focile, Giuseppe Sabbatini. More recently Roberto DeCandia, Sonia Ganassi, Norma Fantini, Manuela Kriscak, Nicola Ulivieri, Daniela Barcellona, Andrea Papi, Monica Colonna, Marina Comparato.

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