Opera

Singers wanted for OperAvenir opera studio

Theater Basel’s international opera studio, OperAvenir, is looking for singers across all voice categories for the 21/22 season.

OperAvenir specifically prepares young singers for a stage career. In a variety of workshops and regular coaching sessions, young singers perfect their technique under the guidance of internationally renowned teachers. Further, OperAvenir participants are given an immediate opportunity to put what they have learned into practice – in leading and supporting roles on the Grosse Bühne, as well as in Theater Basel’s own productions.

The director of the opera studio is Hélio Vida.

We are looking for talented young singers right at the beginning of their professional careers. Applicants should preferably be below the age of 30, although we do make exceptions in individual cases. Your application must contain the following documents:

• Your CV with a photo
• Video links to two different arias
• A copy of your passport

Please submit all supporting documents by 31 October 2020 to: operavenir@theater-basel.ch (Please also send any questions you may have to this email address.)

The auditions are planned to take place in January 2021.

Initial practical experience for young singers

Since 2006, the Basel opera studio OperAvenir has been accompanying young singers taking their first steps in professional theatre productions after their studies. The members of the opera studio appear on stage in various roles. Further, they also create a varied programme through their own projects, concerts and performances.

Diverse advanced training

The advanced training in the opera studio lasts about two years. The applicants come from all over the world.
The focus is on weekly singing and speech, movement and acting lessons; supplemented by workshops and master classes. As from the 20/21 season, Hélio Vida is the director of the opera studio OperAvenir.

Members of OperAvenir 20/21:

• Alex Banfield
• Kali Hardwick (OperAvenir Plus)
• Paull-Anthony Keightley
• Stefanie Knorr

The daily Süddeutsche Zeitung puts it in a nutshell: «Once you have experienced the Sinfonieorchester Basel together with its principal conductor Ivor Bolton, you realise what this fabulous orchestra is capable of.» During its own concert series at Theater Basel as well as in guest performances at home and abroad, the innovative ensemble proves its sound qualities time and time again. 

The orchestra’s principal conductor since the 2016/2017 season has been the British conductor Ivor Bolton. Famed conductors who were or still are closely associated with the Sinfonieorchester Basel include Johannes Brahms, Felix Weingartner, Gustav Mahler, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Gary Bertini, Walter Weller, Armin Jordan, Horst Stein, Otto Klemperer, Nello Santi, Pierre Boulez, Mario Venzago and Dennis Russell Davies.

For some years now, the Sinfonieorchester Basel has also benefited from an increased international presence, for example with tours of the UK in 2014, 2015 and 2017, the ‹Far East Tour› in the spring of 2015, a European tour with David Garrett in March 2017, a tour of Germany with Jonas Kaufmann in January 2019 and, to mark Beethoven's anniversary, the ‹Prometheus Tour› with Peter Simonischek in the spring of 2020. 

The Theater Basel Choir was named Choir of the Year 2013 by critics in Opernwelt magazine. Thanks to the choir's continuous, disciplined, and diligent effort under the guidance of long-standing choirmaster Henryk Polus, it has been possible to form an ensemble of 38 professional singers from 11 countries. The characteristics that have made this choir famous include homogeneity and precision, vigour and beauty of sound, expressiveness and passion for playing, assured style and flexibility. The choir has also excelled in the field of oratorio and concert literature, which has earned it numerous excellent reviews and the Bavarian Theatre Prize 2001 for its production ‹Actus tragicus›. In the 07/08 season, the choir was nominated several times in Opernwelt magazine as Opera Choir of the Year for its productions ‹On the town› and ‹Don Carlos› by Calixto Bieito. In the 16/17 season, the productions ‹Donnerstag aus Licht› by Karlheinz Stockhausen and ‹Chowanschtschina› by Modest Mussorgski saw the choir nominated as the second most important opera choir in German-speaking countries. The extraordinarily varied repertoire ranges from baroque works, romantic operas and operettas to modern-day favourites. Michael Clark has been the director of the Theater Basel Choir since the 17/18 season.