Focusing on the new generations, the Academy aims to valorize, pass on and disseminate the rich tradition of Italian opera, which has its roots in Florence, the homeland of melodrama and of the language universally recognized as that of lyric opera.

Among the activities promoted by the Academy, the Maria Manetti Shrem Emerging Artists Program represents one of its first-rate excellence. It takes his name from his main supporter and it consists of a two-year artistic residency offered to young opera singers and pianists, carefully selected from among the best talents in the world through an international announcement.

The project aims at the high professional improvement, the launch and consolidation of the careers of opera singers and opera coaches.

The current members of the program come from Canada, Chile, China, South Korea, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Romania, Russia and Ukraine. 

Committed to the constant refinement of their art, the young artists combine stylistic and interpretative research with intense artistic activity, participating as soloists in operas and concerts of the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and other prestigious international musical institutions. The classroom and laboratory activities are therefore followed by a significant stage experience which, under the guidance of internationally renowned artists, offers the opportunity to try oneself in a production context and to measure oneself with the complex dynamics of staging an opera.

The quality of the training proposal is guaranteed by a teaching staff made up of well-known artists and expert professionals in the sector, capable of transmitting to the young participants a concentration of their theatrical experience, in a multidisciplinary context of the highest level. Over the years, illustrious opera figures have been teachers at the Academy, including Bruno Campanella, Fabrizio Carminati, Natale de Carolis, Fiorenza Cedolins, Sonia Ganassi, Bruno de Simone, Barbara Frittoli, Leone Magiera, Bernadette Manca di Nissa, Chris Merritt, Ernesto Palacio, Renato Palumbo, Rolando Panerai, Roberto Scandiuzzi, as well as Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti. 

The Academy also intends to give continuity to the successful experience that was the “Lyric Start-up Center” (Centro lirico di avviamento), active at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino between 1937 and 1950, in which some of the most famous singers of the history of opera were trained, including Fedora Barbieri, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Gino Bechi, Rolando Panerai, Franco Corelli, Gian Giacomo Guelfi and Paolo Washington.

International selections for Répétiterus/Opera coaches

Photo shooting by Michele Monasta at Palazzo Guadagni Strozzi Sacrati. We thank the President of the Tuscany Region for the precious collaboration.