Course Programme

30th August - 9th September 2023

This programme focuses on the importance of the Italian language in the evolution of the Bel Canto method of singing through the ages. It is aimed at voice students intending to pursue a professional career or professionals wishing to improve their Italian diction. Serious amateurs and beginners are also welcome subject to audition. The course puts emphasis on communication, vocal style and performance skills, and takes place in the beautiful mountain territory of Montefeltro, in Emilia Romagna, off the tourist route near San Marino and fifty minutes from Rimini and the Adriatic beaches. All nationalities are welcome, but good conversational English will greatly improve your social enjoyment. Students must be 18 but there is no upper age limit.

There will be 7 working days, and a concert on the last evening. There will be a free day either for an excursion (cost not included) to the surrounding countryside or a day at the beach or for private study.

The basic structure of the programme is as follows:

• 2 x 45 minute individual coaching with Maestro Fabbri,
• 2 x 45 minute individual coaching with Charmian Bedford
• 2 x ½ coaching with accompanists
• 4 x 1hr classes in phonetics for singing in Italian
• Additional rehearsal & staging time
• 5 x 1 hr class working on pronunciation of students' selected arias
• Public Performance in the 19th century art nouveau Teatro Sociale, Novafetria

We would stress that on this course students have a great deal of one to one coaching with our wonderful teachers. We venture to say considerably more than most other one week summer schools.

After individual private lessons on the first day, students may sit in on other singers' lessons (at the discretion of the singer.)

This “total immersion” course will vastly improve your Italian interpretation giving it new shades of expression. Maestro Fabbri will reconstruct your diction and his phonetics classes will explain exactly how the Italian sounds are produced.

Charmian Bedford will work on Vocal technique, artistic expression and performance.

With all this, plus daily sessions working on the pronunciation of your individual arias, we promise you will leave with a real “feel” for the language of bel canto.

Coaching sessions and rehearsals will be held at Maestro Fabbri's Opera Academy for Belcanto Diction, Phrasing and Expression, known as the Voci nel Montefeltro (Voices of Montefeltro) housed in the well-equipped Palazzo Lombardini, formerly the Novafeltria Secondary School and at the beautiful Art Nouveau Teatro Sociale, across the street in the centre of town.