ABOUT BOF
“Belcanto Opera Festival in Japan (BOF)”
“Belcanto Opera Festival in Japan (BOF)” was organized in 2019 with funding from the Japanese government, the Agency for Cultural Affairs. In partnership with The Festival della Valle d’Itria (Martina Franca, Italy), BOF aims to train future Belcanto singers in Japan.
The Festival della Valle d’Itria is a long-established festival that has been held for 47 years. Many celebrated artists such as Alberto Zedda or music director Fabio Luisi have participated in the festival.
The festival features rare or new operas, along with baroque, and is important in Europe.
Also, an academy opens during the festival to train excellent young singers who succeeded in the audition.
The first performance at BOF 2019 was S. Mercadante’s "Francesca Da Rimini". From the second performance, Ms. Carmen Santoro (music supervisor of The Festival della Valle d’Itria) became the artistic director of BOF. She has led the second performance, A.Scarlatti’s baroque opera ”Il trionfo dell’onore”, and other pieces such as baroque to success.
Every year Ms. Santoro opens her master class for young singers, and demonstrates her training skill.
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Carmen SANTORO
She is one of the most important Vocal Coaches of her generation.
She collaborates with Zurich Opera House, Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Theater an der Wien, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp, Lithuanian National Opera in Vilnius, Theater of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Comunale of Bologna, Teatro San Carlo of Naples, Regio Theater of Parma, Petruzzelli Theater of Bari, Toscanini Foundation of Parma, Rossini Opera Festival of Pesaro, Festival of the Valle d'Itria of Martina Franca, Wexford Festival Opera, Festival Donizetti Bergamo ...
She has collaborated with Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Monserrat Caballé, Marilyn Horne, Diana Damrau, Mariella Devia, Juan Diego Florez, Daniela Barcellona, Pretty Yende, Javier Camarena, Lawrence Brownlee, Saimir Pirgu, Krasimira Stoyanova ...
She is professor at the International Opera Studio of the Zurich Opera House, Young Artist Program of the Metropolitan Opera of New York, Royal College of Music of London, Young Artists Opera Program of the Bolshoi Theater of Moscow, Center of Perfeccionament Placido Domingo of Palau de les Arts of Valencia, School of Opera of the Municipal Theater of Bologna, Rossiniana Academy in Pesaro, Lunenburg Academy, Nova Scotia Canada, Showa University in Tokyo ...
She is Director of Music Studies and Assistant to the Music Director M Fabio Luisi at the "Paolo Grassi" Academy in Martina Franca.
Since 2012 she has been Assistant to M. Fabio Luisi at the Zurich Opera House, at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, at the Valle d’Itria Festival in Martina Franca where he is also Music Production Supervisor.
She is Artistic Director of the Bel Canto Opera Festival in Japan organized by the Japan Opera Foundation in Tokyo.
BOF Artistic Director / Vocal coach CARMEN SANTORO
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| Carmen SANTORO |
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I feel really lucky to see this Belcanto Opera Festival born in Japan from the very beginning, and the joy of seeing so much interest and passion for the Belcanto, and so much enthusiasm for the values and ideals of the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca, festival wanted and supported since its birth by great personalities of Italian music and culture: Paolo Grassi, Rodolfo Celletti, Alberto Zedda.
This cultural environment so rich in knowledge and art has sustained the birth and the growth of many musicians, singers, conductors. I can mention among all the conductor M. Fabio Luisi who started his career in Martina Franca at first as a correpetitor and then as a conductor. Together we shared many editions of the festival, many musical experiences, a lot of learning from the great masters with whom we were lucky enough to work in Martina Franca.
The Festival della Valle d’Itria di Martina Franca is honored to have in these years M. Fabio Luisi as Musical Director, Dott. Alberto Triola as Artistic Director and Prof. Franco Punzi as President from the very beginning.
The BOF, directly inspired by the Festival della Valle d’Itria di Martina Franca, has just concluded its third edition and, despite the lack of a great opera production that unfortunately we had to postpone to the next edition for the reasons related to the well-known health situation, it has shown the quality of its artistic and cultural values by proposing performances of a high artistic level which they had a great appreciation from our audience.
This is a young festival but it has inside great values proposing also great challenges and possibilities: research, training, promotion, production.
The training and promotion of young Japanese artists, singers and pianists, is one of the strengths of our institution; the research and production of unusual titles places us among the most wanted and refined festivals on the current Japanese scene. I also believe that Belcanto culture and production is one of the greatest points of affinity between our two peoples; the delicacy, taste, refinement, elegance and modesty of feelings are speaking directly to our sensibilities.
I hope that the Belcanto Opera Festival in Japan can continue to grow and could be always a cultural and artistic enrichment for everyone.
About Opera studio (Master classes by Ms. Carmen Santoro)
Belcanto is a style of singing that has reached its peak in the early 19th century. It is a singing method that uses a wide range of pitch, and makes full use of highly flexible vocal techniques. However, Belcanto was left behind in history because opera composers such as Verdi, Wagner, and Puccini became mainstream with their dramatic and powerful melodies. The Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca played an important role in such an era. Rodolfo Celletti, the master of Belcanto, served as the 1st artistic director of the festival, and his philosophy remains to lead the festival to success until this day.
To ride on a wave of Belcanto Renaissance, The Fujiwara Opera partnered with The festival della Valle d’Itria, and holds master classes by Carmen Santoro, the music supervisor of The festival della Valle d’Itria, not only to present operas but also to train future Bel Canto singers. She has been studying Belcanto from her early carrer with the famous conductor Fabio Luisi at the festival, and later became the music supervisor of the festival.
27 young singers and 9 repetiteurs who succeeded in the audition has taken her Master classes, and showed great results thus far.
