Renowned Italian opera academy puts pupils through their paces for 4-day training program in Seoul

It’s every young opera singer’s dream to enroll in the Georg Solti Accademia, a three-week Italian mentorship program directed by renowned experts in the field. Each year, it sees hundreds of applicants but accepts no more than 12.

From left: Georg Solti Accademia artistic director Jonathan Papp, executive director Candice Wood and soprano and alumni Hera Hyesang Park pose during a press conference for the academy's Korean Bel Canto course at the Seoul Arts Center in southern Seoul on Tuesday. [SEOUL ARTS CENTER]

It’s every young opera singer’s dream to enroll in the Georg Solti Accademia, a three-week Italian mentorship program directed by renowned experts in the field. Each year, it sees hundreds of applicants but accepts no more than 12, with an acceptance rate of just 6 percent.

A condensed version of the academy’s Bel Canto course, targeted at Korean opera singers aged 33 years or younger, is taking place at the Seoul Arts Center in Seocho District, southern Seoul, until Saturday.

Co-organized by the Georg Solti Accademia and Seoul Arts Center, the collaboration was made possible since the academy’s artistic director Jonathan Papp and executive director Candice Wood have been eyeing Korea over the years.

Papp and Wood are co-founders of the Georg Solti Accademia, which was established in 2004 in memory of the late Hungarian-British conductor (1912-1997).

The academy has continued to receive large numbers of high-level Korean applicants, “but when you only have 12 places, you can’t accept six Koreans, so we thought it would be better to come to you,” Wood said in a press conference Tuesday. She was in attendance alongside Papp and soprano and alumni Hera Hyesang Park.

Eight Koreans were selected this time and are being tutored by Papp, Park, soprano Barbara Frittoli, Italian diction coach Stefano Baldasseroni and conductor Carlo Rizzi.

Papp calls it a “rigorous” four days, adding, “The only thing that’s not on our side is time.”

Lessons on the Italian language are crucial for opera singers, especially when they are from abroad, as their native language tends to affect the way they sing in Italian.

Park herself was a student under the academy a decade ago, and she found it helpful to learn what parts to accentuate when singing.

“If you don’t fully understand the Italian language, then you put emphasis on everything, which becomes square and a bit too much,” she said. “So then the singer is unable to know which part of the song needs to be expressed more emotionally.”

With only some 400 alumni members, the academy not only teaches the technical elements essential to an opera singer’s career, but also fosters an environment where the members basically become family, Wood said. An example is members helping each other out with accommodation when their fellow singers travel around the world.

“The transition from being a student to being an artist on stage is huge, but no one helps you with that transition,” she said. “That bridge is something that the academy tries to help build.”

The training sessions finish on Friday, after which the eight students will perform at the Seoul Arts Center’s Opera Theater for a gala concert on Saturday at 3 p.m. Among them, one performer will be selected to participate in the official Bel Canto course in Tuscany, Italy, next year.

Applications for seats for the gala concert can be made here. Tickets are free.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]