Opéra des Landes - Académie d’opéra
The Academy is your next step in professional development - and your opportunity to immerse yourself in a French summer opera festival! Only 12 singers will be chosen, ensuring you have personalized training and development.
Performance opportunities 2025
Concert performances:
Aux Grands Airs
Scènes d'amour
Aux Grands Airs is the 2025 gala aria concert with orchestra. Each singer will have the opportunity to perform an aria as well as sing in duets and chorus with orchestra in this special evening.
Scènes d'amour is the opera scenes concert with piano. This is the closing performance of the festival and a very special night that demonstrates the culmination of your learning in the Academy. These semi-staged scenes will highlight lesser-known French operatic repertoire. This gives singers the chance to broaden their knowledge of French opera, and lets the French public hear more rare moments of their cultural heritage.
Cultural Connection Shows:
Impromptu
Après-Show
Impromptus are free, short concerts in the region for interested locals and the passionate festival attendees. The concert series focuses on lighter French repertoire and opérette.
Après-Show is an informal gathering around the piano after various concert and opera evenings. A variety of music is performed in a relaxed settings, from arias to musical theater to light pop, with a special “all fached up” evening as well!
Opera Chorus 2025:
La Belle de Cadix
Le nozze di Figaro
The Academy will join local singers to form the chorus of both mainstage operas of the Festival. 2025 operas will be Le nozze di Figaro and La belle de Cadix.
Academy participants will interact and learn from French professionals and also make connections with local singers who are passionate about music and contribute to the chorus.
Professional Training
Daily Private Coachings
The Opera Academy is dedicated to the continued training and development of emerging artists.
During the first 2 weeks of residence, singers will have daily private coachings with a variety of professionals. This will prepare each singer the rigorous upcoming performance schedule. As time allows, deeper exploration into repertoire and technique may be possible, if so desired by the singer.
Every participant will have private coachings with Gaspard Brécourt, Artistic Director of the festival, as well as with Mark Van Arsdale, Program Director, and esteemed vocal coaches from Paris and the region.
Agent Audition and Masterclass
Academy members will have the privilege of singing for an Agent Audition. This panel will feature French agents and give participants professional feedback as well as invaluable connections for a future career.
The Masterclass is a 1 or 2-day opportunity to work with an esteemed French professional for technique and performance feedback. Sing, watch and learn with your peers in this supportive environment.
French language, acting, and performance workshops
Every other morning, we gather around a cup of coffee and immerse ourselves in French language instruction. This instruction will be a French immersion format, with the goal of immediate communication in the town and at the opera company. While no French is required for the program, any background in French will certainly be useful!
The Acting Workshop will be during the first week of the Academy, and introduce singers to certain French styles of performance and movement on stage. This will prepare singers for the final concert of the season, the opera scenes performance.
Finally, the Director of the Opéra des Landes, Yassine Benameur, will give a performance workshop on scenes and dramatic interpretation.
Wellness and Culture
Psychology, Mindfulness, and Yoga
The Academy is dedicated to developing the whole artist. While technique and language are essential, so is mental health.
Wellness Seminar. During the first weeks, a special multi-day seminar will be held with clinical psychologist Amy Van Arsdale, Ph.D., to help understand anxiety and stress, share in a small group setting, and work on strategies for mindfulness and well-being, both on and off the stage.
Yoga classes will be taught every other morning, deepening the mind-body connection and understanding of both the musculature of the vocal apparatus as well as the entire body through postures, breath exercises, and meditation.
French Culture and Immersion
The town of Soustons is in the heart of the Landes region of southwest France, and located just minutes from the Atlantic coast. Fun in the sun as well as rich cultural excursions await:
Daily bike rides. Each participant will have their own bike for the program, and it will be the primary form of transportation from lodging to the rehearsal and performance venues.
Group beach trip. There will be a group beach day at the beginning of the program. Following this, singers will have the opportunity to go to the beach independently on their free time.
Day Trip to Biarritz and Bayonne. We will discover together the rich history of Basque Country, just south of les Landes
The Beach and
Cultural Excursions
France is a country of immense beauty: in music, in art, in language, in nature.
The Academy of the Opéra des Landes is the perfect combination of a young artist program and a study abroad program. Over the period of a month, participants will experience:
Full participation as a professional in a French summer opera festival. Singers will learn the rhythm and feeling of being a professional singer in a summer opera festival - the rigorous rehearsal and performance schedule, as well as the joy and fun of performing beautiful music in front of a warm, appreciative audience.
Full immersion in French culture and language. Singers will experience the joys, large and small, of daily life in France: the local boulangerie, the Sunday farmer’s market, drinking a café on a terrasse, working with local collègues, and speaking in French every day!
One day in your summer.
Weeks 1-2: Study and Rehearsals
9 AM: Yoga class or French class
10 AM: Wellness seminar or Acting workshop
12 PM: Lunch with the group at the theatre
1 PM: Private coaching
3 PM: Opera scene rehearsal
5 PM: Quick trip to the beach, maybe?
8 PM: Dinner with the group
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Weeks 3-4: Performances and Showcases
10 AM: Yoga Class or French class
11 AM: Warm-up for Masterclass or Agent Audition
12 PM: Lunch at the theatre
1 PM - 4 PM: Masterclass
5 PM: Quick change for evening performance
6 PM: Impromptu performance
7 PM: Dinner with the group
8 PM - 11 PM: Evening Opera Performance