Nikova developed a teaching method where she trained each dancer individually, considering each one’s character and physical attributes, teaching them the principles and techniques of classical ballet without trying to alter their natural plasticity. She even encouraged the women to dance during their routine household chores, like cleaning, laundry, or baking bread.

Classically trained Rina Nikova shifted focus on enhancing each dancer’s unique qualities rather than molding them into a one-size-fits-all technique. This philosophy not only highlighted the physical and emotional diversity among dancers but also likely contributed to a more inclusive and creative environment within her ballet troupe. Such approaches are now more common in contemporary dance practices but were quite innovative at the time when Nikova was teaching.

Today Rina Nikova is known as one of the pioneering figures in ballet of Israel.

Rina (Rosa) Rubnovich was born in 1898, with sources citing either Bialystok or Saint Petersburg as her place of birth. She began her ballet training relatively late at age 16 but was fortunate in her teachers, studying under Nikolai Legat during his tenure at the former Moscow Imperial School, and Juliette Mendes, one of the daughters of Hosé Mendes, a ballet master at the Bolshoi Theatre. In 1922, Nikova emigrated with her parents to Berlin, where she continued her training under Eugenia Eduardova, a former lead dancer at the Mariinsky Theatre.

She took the name Nikova upon marrying and shortening her husband’s surname, Sapozhnikova. Around this time, she began performing, touring in France, and even performing alongside Lydia Sokolova and the Russian Ballet, although she remained primarily a character dancer, which shaped her future career.

In 1925, Nikova moved to Palestine and settled in Tel Aviv, where she became the prima ballerina and choreographer of the Palestinian Opera (the first opera theatre in Israel, founded by Mordechai Golinkin, a friend of Chaliapin). Simultaneously, she established her own ballet studio—the first classical ballet school in Israel.

When the opera theater closed in 1928, Nikova went on tour. In 1929, she performed at the Metropolitan Opera in the American premiere of Stravinsky’s “Les Noces,” choreographed by former Bolshoi ballerina Elizaveta Yulyevna Anderson-Ivantsova.

In the 1930s, she founded the “Biblical Ballet,” a small ballet company consisting of seven Yemenite Jewish women. They performed and sang pieces based on biblical stories. The troupe was tremendously successful. In the late 1930s, they traveled to Paris, where the famous impresario Sol Hurok saw them perform. He took them under his wing and helped organize a highly successful European tour.

The war disrupted their planned American tour, and the troupe returned to Palestine.

However, Nikova was undeterred. She opened two ballet studios—one in Jerusalem and another in Tel Aviv. She remarried and continued to promote classical ballet, although she eventually had to abandon this pursuit due to the lack of

professional classical dancers and even basic necessities like pointe shoes. Responding to Nikova’s request, Hurok sent a crate of pointe shoes, all size 40, which, ironically, was at the same time that her compatriot Jacob Bloch was opening the first pointe shoe workshop and store in Australia.

Nikova shifted her focus to folk dance. She skillfully incorporated rich local folklore into her productions’ plots and choreography. She arranged with the Jerusalem Workers’ Council to involve talented young men from union activities in her shows. Unable to tour Europe, she took her troupe to South Africa instead.

In 1970, at the age of 72, Nikova opened her dance academy, the House of Rina Nikova, featuring two studios below and a small apartment above, in Jerusalem. Four years later, her life was tragically cut short when she was accidentally struck by a motorcyclist.

After her death, while specific records of what exactly happened to her schools might be sparse, the tradition and influence of her work likely continued through her students and through other dance institutions that may have been inspired by her methods and passion for ballet. The development of dance in Israel has been robust, with the country becoming known for its vibrant contemporary dance scene, and foundational figures like Nikova certainly played a role in building this reputation.

What Really Spicy Opera is?

Really Spicy Opera is a jewel-box opera company based in Minneapolis, founded in 2005 by Basil Considine, our creative director. The company has given the world premieres of more than thirty plays, musicals, and operas, and launched the careers of more than 150 professional musicians.

What is a “jewel box opera company”?

“Jewel box” means basically we focus on smaller scale productions. We’re not going to do a 2000-seat production of Rigoletto, but rather smaller, more intimate settings– and also our focus now is more on newly written pieces.

What is Aria Institute?

The Aria Institute started in 2020 as a pandemic project. It’s a 4 or 5 week-long program designed to familiarize both composers and librettists with core principles of writing and pitching contemporary English-language operas. Today it’s one of only three intensive modern opera writing programs in the United States, which I think is very, very interesting.

How does Aria Institute work?

Basil is not only a musicologist and interpreter of new and historic operas, but also a composer. He realized that there weren’t a lot of programs for people who try to write things, collaborate, and throw around ideas. You know, like taking spaghetti, throwing it at the wall and seeing what sticks– experimentation! While you are in a university setting there’s a lot of that, but once you get out, there isn’t as much.  So, Aria Institute is a post-university intensive program for just that.

We take composers and librettists of all ages and experience levels. We have had a very broad spectrum of people coming in–our past participants range in age from 18 to 65 years old. And while the majority of participants have been based in the US, we’ve also had folks zooming in from around the world, places like Iran or Australia. And some really cool pieces and partnerships have come out of it.

I would like to stress that Aria Institute is not about teaching but about collaborating. And that’s a big, big, big, big focus. We’re coming in here with our areas of expertise and we’re trying to create something new together.

So, it’s a collaborative effort and we really put focus on learning how to collaborate. You get to know how to work with a directive, how to work with someone commissioning you to write a very specific piece. For example, write me a Star Wars based aria that’s 3.5 minutes long for a soprano who can’t sing above a high G. Something very specific like that.

So, I’m on board as a singer, not a teacher. I’m not teaching the participants but giving them feedback based upon my experience as a singer, and as a person who might be singing the pieces created during the collaboration.

How is the process organized?

The way it has been traditionally run, we would have, let’s say, five librettists and five composers, and a five–week session. That allows every composer to work with every librettist (we pair them up differently every week). The pair gets a prompt from the leading time on, let’s say, Friday. It could be anything. I mean, sometimes we’ve had very vague prompts like, I don’t know, write about greed or we’ve had very specific prompts, things like write about a certain Star Wars movie.

Then the librettist has 24 hours to come up with the text, pass it on to the composer who has another 24 hours to deliver the first draft of the aria. It’s a very quick turnaround! We, the leading time, then give informal feedback to the pair after those initial 48 hours.

On the Aria Institute directorship staff, we have two singers and a composer, and we usually bring in some kind of a guest artist. It might be a librettist, a pianist, a conductor – somebody who also can provide feedback.

And, you know, these first drafts come in very different states of doneness– and it’s fine. We want to see what’s there and then help guide the team to create a piece that’s performable, that singers want to sing and that producers want to produce, that will go up on stage and be heard.

We’ve had over 200 pieces written since we started. Some of them have gone on to be performed with chamber orchestras, and there even have been some full-length operas born out of these collaborations, which is also very, very cool.

And I think it’s really important that we push the idea of, you know, what do singers want? What do pianists want? How do we get these pieces up and performed?Getting those pieces out and performed is the biggest goal of the Aria Institute.

So, from what you’re saying it seems that singers play a significant role in the process of opera writing?

They should, yes! There is no opera without opera singers, and I’ve been surprised to see how little is known about the artform, the mechanics of opera singing. I ask one very important thing every Aria Institute: what exactly is opera singing? Surprisingly, a lot of composers and librettists don’t have a clear answer.

Opera singing is a very specific technical tool and a specific type of vocal production. How we make the sound is different than in musical theater, jazz, or pop singing. I like to compare singing with sports (not that I’m a sports person!). If you ask a professional basketball player to play baseball, they aren’t going to somehow be the best in the game just because they are a professional athlete– they are a professional basketball player who is highly specialized in their specific sport. It’s the same with singing. Expecting an opera singer to be as good at singing musical theater as a Broadway star (and vice-versa) isn’t realistic. But you have to know the difference not only in sound but in how the sound is produced.

So, my mission as a singer working on creating a new aria is to ask my collaborators:

What makes it opera?  Why is this opera?  How is this opera to you? Why does this need to be an opera? Would it be better off as musical theater?

I also offer up specific things like: if you’re writing for a soprano, isn’t this part a little bit too low/high/in a difficult part of the voice? Composers need to know how opera singing works in order to do it justice. And that’s what I’m here for!

What other collaborations are essential for the process?

We want to give the composers and librettists a little bit of control over the process too. It’s very, very interesting to see the collaboration happen.

Librettists provide all the words you hear sung on stage. Those are written by librettists and come from their beautiful minds. Text is important – the words, the speed of its delivery… We always encourage our librettists to send a recording of themselves speaking the text so that composers can bring their inflection and word stress into the musical line.

One thing I’ve come across quite a bit while working with contemporary composers is: there’s been a lot of focus on writing all sorts of crazy things like really high, really low, extremely complicated rhythms, entrances that are hard or downright impossible to find. As a singer you then basically have to pound the notes in your brain and rely on muscle memory more than a logical or melodic understanding of the piece. Remember, singers don’t have buttons to push; we have to feel and find the note in our body and then execute it.

Depending on how composers and librettists feel about the pieces, they might like to release the created arias into the wild on their own programs. I personally have gone on to program many of the pieces I’ve run across during Aria Institute. And we have had showcase concerts as well, like our last concert in Munich which was a sort of “Greatest Hits” presentation.

Can you tell us more about your latest project?

We recently ran Aria Institute in collaboration with the Munich and Hamburg music colleges.

One of our resident singers from Minnesota, Victoria Erickson, who I met in Madagascar on a Really Spicy Opera tour, had the idea to do a postgraduate study abroad. She wanted to test the idea of Aria Institute in Germany, of newly created pieces, you know those singer-friendly, performable, music focused, classical music pieces.

She started reaching out, finding connections, finding ways to bring herself over here to Europe. She decided to do her studies in Hamburg at the Hochschule, but made contact with a fantastic composer in Munich who was so interested in the project that he invited us to come and just do a week-long Aria Institute at the Hochschule, which was very, very cool.

We ended up going to both cities – Hamburg and Munich. What we did in Hamburg was basically the Aria Institute, but Victoria was up there working with students over the course of 2 months. I went up and helped with feedback and then performed some of the pieces with her at the end of March. In Munich, we worked on a more traditional “tight” schedule, with 10 students creating 10 pieces in just over a week. We brought over my co-director Tess Altiveros as well as residence composer Lisa Neher to help out with the Munich edition. It was our first “in-person”, non-zoom edition ever!

As the next step we may take the show out on the road. Your school can hire us, and we will come and do the Aria Institute in your town.

How to listen, appreciate and understand modern operas?

I feel like modern opera is such a wide term. You might end up going to see something like this absolutely wonderful production I recently saw, “Maria de Buenos Aires” by Piazolla– a “tango opera” which was written, I think, in the sixties. Technically it’s considered modern opera, even though it was written over 50 years ago. Or you could end up with something which is very cerebral, difficult to sing with music more like a soundscape than what you’d consider an “opera”. Be sure to research the piece a little before you go so you know what you’re getting yourself into!

What should we start with?

There are plenty of really wonderful modern operas if you get a chance to go see: A Quiet Place/Trouble in Tahiti or Candide by Bernstein are wonderful starter operas in general.

If you’re going to see something newly composed, above all else, keep an open mind and know that it’s going to sound different than Puccini!

And that’s the most important thing, I think: keeping an open mind. Just be curious, listen to it with open ears, and when in doubt, marvel at the artform. Never forget that opera is acoustic. That’s what really sets opera apart from other vocal stylings we know these

days: opera is completely acoustic, meaning those people up there are singing without any microphones or amplification.

So, even if the piece is difficult for you to grasp, you can still respect those opera singers who are executing all kinds of crazy rhythms and notes in a language they probably don’t speak — and they’re doing it all without microphones!

The Young European #HeritageMakers competition, an esteemed annual initiative by the Council of Europe and the European Commission, is part of the European Heritage Days. It is designed to engage the youth in the exploration and preservation of Europe’s diverse cultural heritage, offers a unique platform for showcasing innovative projects that combine traditional arts with modern storytelling techniques.

The project, titled “Echoes of Our Ancestors,” goes beyond digital storytelling to incorporate hands-on experiences that connect the youth with their heritage. Participation in this initiative has spurred a series of engaging activities designed to acquaint children with the historical and cultural nuances of embroidery, as well as fundamental artistic concepts such as composition, pattern structure, and ornament creation.

Leading the charge was Gavrilenko Victoria, head of the studio at the Pobuzhsky Art Center, who conducted a masterclass illuminating the intricate world of beading techniques and their application in decorating various products. Participants were particularly fascinated to learn that the oldest embroidery colors in the Kirovohrad region were white and red, with red traditionally considered a protective amulet.

Following the masterclass, a series of workshops introduced the young artists to the craft of weaving beads into patterns, culminating in the creation of decorative pieces like bracelets. These hands-on sessions not only honed their skills but also deepened their connection to their cultural roots, showcasing the region’s rich artistic legacy.

The Creative Fellowship Foundation, a voluntary community of art professionals and educators, has played a crucial role in bringing this project to life. Through their support, and guidance the Pobuzhsky Art Center has been able to offer these enriching activities, ensuring that the project not only meets but exceeds its educational and cultural objectives.

By participating in the “Echoes of Our Ancestors” project and the Young European #HeritageMakers competition, the Pobuzhsky Art Center aims to cast a spotlight on their region’s centuries-old cultural traditions. The project serves as a bridge connecting the diverse cultures of Europe, illustrating the shared heritage that binds the continent together, with Ukraine’s traditional craftsmanship at the forefront of this cultural exchange.

The initiative underscores the importance of preserving and celebrating heritage, encouraging a new generation to explore and appreciate the depth and beauty of their cultural identity. Through the collective efforts of the Pobuzhsky Art Center and the Creative Fellowship Foundation, “Echoes of Our Ancestors” stands as a testament to the enduring power of traditional arts in fostering unity and understanding among the nations of Europe.

To know more about the project please visit: https://www.europeanheritagedays.com/node/427617

When we got invitation to the International Young Ballet Festival in Geneva, we had no idea what to expect. Of course, everyone knew about Prix de Lausanne, crème de la crème of ballet, but Geneva festival did not ring a bell. Little that we knew…

What we saw on the stage made us doubt our priorities in ballet competition ratings and completely overturned our perception of Geneva as a sleepy picturesque destination in the schedules of occasionally touring ballet projects.

Upon entering the building of a converted pumping station, we literary were swung by the powerful vibe of the dance brotherhood and free spirit of youth. Right in the middle of the fashionably modern yet old-timing industrial interior we found ourselves amongst people who literary lived and breathed dance.

From the brochure we got to know that the event greatly facilitates exchanges between nearby schools, young ballet companies and their directors. The 2024 edition offered a large number of masterclasses with guest professors open to dance schools’ students, 2 evening shows and an audition for young dancers in front of a jury of directors from Rambert School, Antwerp Junior Ballet, Antwerp Junior Ballet Company, Area Jeune Ballet and Manuel Renard, ballet master of the Grand Theatre de Geneve. The audition also offered professional immersion internships to the most successful attendants.  Those were nice words written on paper, but nothing could prepare us to what those stage performances offered to the Geneva dance lover audience in real life.

Witnessing the incredible quality of the shows put together by junior dancers of the Dutch National Junior Company, Junior Ballet Anwerp, Area Jeune ballet and Rambert School made us uncomfortable about the organizers’ statement of giving opportunities to “raw talents”. Not only those talents were far from raw, but they also daringly challenged the royal basics of ballet bringing the art of dance into the different and very high skilled future. The irony of starting the final bow in traditional leotards and rehearsal skirts did not skip our attention. The artists passed their message straight: we appreciate the basics but it’s about time to move on. And they did move on gracefully.

The organizers of the event, Marie-Christine Maigret de Priches, Yvette Regueiro and Isabel Stoffels are no strangers to ballet classics. In the past if they didn’t dance professionally, they were engaged into the industry by sitting on board of the mentioned above Prix de Lausanne. This background brings even more appreciation to their desire not to stagnate but to keep dancers’ minds open and explore new forms of beloved art.

The Young Ballet Festival is organized annually since 2020 by the Dance Area school and the Dance Area Foundation with the support of private financial institutions and donors. The purpose of the foundation is to promote choreographic art in Geneva, dance education, training and support for young dancers and creators. Among other things, the foundation offers scholarships to aspiring dancers who cannot support themselves to access the artistic training.

Dance Area is a private school with the 25-year history of providing an inspiring learning environment where amateur, pre-professional and professional artists mingle, advocating diversity and encounters between artists from all walks of life.

To wrap up, we are glad we used this opportunity in Geneva to get ourselves acquainted with this outstanding event and will certainly recommend our potential fellows and scholars to follow up on the growth opportunities both the International Young Ballet Festival and Dance Area school offer to the young dancers.

To know more about the scholarships and programs Dance Area offers to aspiring dancers, please visit their websites:

Foundation https://fondationdancearea.ch/en/scholarships/

School https://dancearea.ch/en/about/#

Application deadline: March 10, 2024

Program dates: March 23 – 27, 2024

#creativefellowship in partnership with Attitude Ballet Studios Vienna are excited to introduce Vienna Ballet Camp (VBC) to children of 9 – 12 years old with previous ballet experience. VBC is a perfect opportunity for younger children to explore the many facets of the artform of dance and self-expression and take their skills to the new heights.

Young students of 9 – 12 years old can enter online to apply for a one-time scholarship that will cover: registration fee, five-day program featuring trainings in ballet technique, modern and contemporary dance, character dance, neoclassical choreography, personalized assessments and expert guidance from the top-class educators, portfolio photo shoot and a certificate of attendance signed by all teachers. The scholarship does not cover travel-related paperwork, flights, accommodation, meals and transportation. This in-kind contribution is valued at 400 Euro.

Applicants are required to submit:

• Photo (does not have to be professional)
• Parent/Guardian Letter of Interest (no more than 500 words)

Our teaching team will grant the scholarships based on the applicant’s financial situation and motivation. Incomplete scholarship requests will not be considered.

One eligible camper will benefit from a complete ballet tuition spring semester – April to June. Attendance 3 to 4 times per week to the Attitude Studios children’s ballet program and participation in the summer performance on the 30th of June.

Scholarship recipients will be notified when the review process is complete no later than March 15, 2024.

For more information on the intensive please click: https://www.attitudestudios.at/vienna-ballet-camp/

Creative Fellowship calls for young talents in different art forms to take part in the annual online art challenge for young creators aged 11 – 18 living worldwide.

Share your artwork to raise awareness of the current humanitarian crisis and bring moral support to children and youngsters at risk.

The challenge is open to all individuals, friends, families, even fur babies of young creators. It’s a chance for every talent of every artistic level to show support and help vulnerable young people struggling with integrating in the new communities to build self-confidence and find their daily life superpowers.

Participants can choose a category:

• Painting
• Photo
• Illustration / drawing
• Digital art
• Video
• Animation
• Costume design

To be eligible, the art has to promote creators’ vision on what makes people humans and follow creative brief.

Project curator: Petra Zublasing, industrial artist and Olympian from Italy.

Project partners: Monte Language School (Brazil), Attitude Studios Vienna (Austria), Pobuzhsky Ferronickel Plant (Ukraine), DOO Bucim Radovish (N.Macedonia), Le Salley Dialogue School (France), Studio Moliere Theatre (Austria), Dot Shot Creative Agency (Slovakia)

Applications are accepted until April 1, 2024

To apply please go to: https://creativefellowship.org/tell-the-aliens-what-makes-us-human/ or send your artworks directly to art@creativefellowship.org

Timeline

Submission deadline April 1, 2024

Public online voting April 1-9, 2024

Winners’ announcement and online exhibition launch June 1, 2024

Charity exhibition July 15 – August 3, 2024

Outcome

40 artists will be selected to participate in the Ready-To-Print exhibition themed A BOOK OF HUMANITY. Exhibition will be launched in the dedicated subchapter of the  https://creativefellowship.org website.

14 best artworks will be selected by the Instagram voting (@creative.fellowship account) and featured in the 2025 Children’s Artwork Calendar.

Each participant of the exhibition will receive a printed calendar for 2025 with the publication of the 14 best works, selected during open online voting.

ready2print exhibition format

Is an innovative concept in museum quality exhibitions.

Creative Fellowship’s easy to print exhibition is designed to raise awareness of the current humanitarian crisis, and bring moral support to those at risk.

Ready2print exhibitions are provided free of charge as high-resolution digital files. Institutions or individuals interested in participation, can request files at art@creativefellowship.org

IN SURPORT TO DISPLACED CHILDREN & YOUTH OF UKRAINE

According to Afshan Khan, UNICEF’s Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, almost two-thirds of Ukrainian children are displaced either internally or across the border as refugees.

Refugee, displaced and migrant children often suffer from ‘injured self-esteem and diminished cultural pride’.

We believe through artistic projects Creative Fellowship and our collaborators can raise awareness of the current humanitarian crisis and bring moral support to children and youngsters at risk.

By engaging children and young people into A BOOK OF HUMANITY art challenge  internationally we would like to promote courage and inspiration, facilitate new connections, and inspirit zeal for a better life amongst  those who need to be imbued.

Ready-To-Print exhibition can be printed by any institution (school, dance studio, theater or even a hairdresser salon!) anywhere in the world to show solidarity with Ukrainians.

For more information follow: https://creativefellowship.org/share-your-artwork-to-support-ukraine/

About Curator: Petra Zublasing

Petra Zublasing, an Italian visual artist and Olympian competing in sport shooting, has joined @creative.fellowship’s virtual Collection of Happiness art exhibition project as an independent curator.

Petra Zublasing has been an Olympic athlete for nearly two decades, travelling the world and representing Italy in several Games. In 2018, she completely changed the direction of her interests and began developing her creative side. That same year,Ms. Zublasing enrolled in studies of visual communications at the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) in Turin, Italy. Today, Ms. Zublasing is a well-developed artist with deep knowledge of both the language and specific techniques used in the various areas of application. She has a wide range of talents, from children’s to scientific illustrations, cartoons, animation, and design for traditional publishing and advertising.

Petra’s duties as the project’s art curator include designing theexhibition’s overall look, selecting artworks submitted in response to the public open call, and promoting the project to relevant stakeholders in order to bring attention to art as a community-building tool.

Registration https://jobs.salzburgerfestspiele.at/berufswelt

#operajobs

Rested in the snow dusted Italian Dolomities only 10 km away from the regional capital Bolzano, Appiano/Epppan is mostly known for its wineries, craft products and Christmas markets.

Between the end of November and the beginning of January the town captivates thousands of visitors every year, offering them to marvel and stroll in the alleys of St. Paul’s seeing around 100 traditional cribs behind windows and experiencing thousands of lights as well as the traditional Advent market at the very Appiano/Eppan center St. Michael. Besides the mulled wine and local delicacies, traditional winter festivities offer special activities for kids and families.

This year, a family program at the Christmas market in St. Michael | Eppan featured craft workshops for creative minds where old and young could make their own Christmas decorations, giving life to the self-crafted gnomes and elves.

With the support of the local art community center Rapunzel.eppan Creative Fellowship’s “Be Your Own Hero” charity exhibition became a great addition to the glowing wonderland on the town hall square.

“I believe that winter festivities are the best time of the year, not only for enjoyingtraditional holiday spirit but also for giving to those less fortunate. By bringing our “Be Your Own Hero” to one of the most popular advent spots in South Tyrol we introduced emerging young artists from across the world to 900000 of Bolzano region visitors and used the chance to raise awareness and spread hope for youngsters whose lives are affected by such challenging situations as war, natural disaster, hunger or poverty. For some of our artists a daily act of heroism is to go to school and adapt to their new lives away from homes. Nevertheless, their artworks are colorful, positive and full of hope. What could fit better into the spirit of Christmas than that?” – shared her experience, Petra Zublasing.

@visiteppan.appiano @rapunzel.eppan #kidsXmas #stMichaelEppan #eppan #appiano #eppanlife –

Tell us a bit about the Opera Camp that you visited in 2023?

It’s a camp in Austria, in Salzburg mostly for teenage musicians and those interested in performing arts. We spent most of the week preparing a performance. We worked on songs for the play, adjusted the storyline as we needed to change the script a bit. Then the orchestra created a very beautiful piece that they started working on a couple of months before the trip to Salzburg.

How did you know about the camps?

My mother told me about it and she learned from the Creative Fellowship.

What was your expectations vs reality experience?

First, I was nervous because I didn’t know anyone, and I thought no one spoke English there. In reality it was very simple to make a lot of friendships that would last for a long time. The teachers were very nice and friendly and the place where we stayed was beautiful with the gorgeous view on the city. Teachers were very relaxed and calm with us even when we were not the best of ourselves. We had this feeling of more having older friends around than teachers. In the beginning the teachers helped campers who were left a bit aside to blend in. That’s why you never felt alone.

How many people were there in the camp with you?

There was about 40-45 people. Mostly they came from Germany and Austria, and they all spoke English. There were also people from New York, France, Israel, and we bonded into a very colorful group. Most campers were 13-14 years old; the oldest ones were 16.

How did you choose what you would be doing in production?

On the first day we would be put into two groups. Those with instruments would already know they are assigned to the orchestra, those who were interested in acting or crafting would go the other group. Each of us had an opportunity to be on the stage. Even those in the orchestra would be called on stage to do some acting. Candidates in acting group could pick up their roles and if the assigned role would be outnumbered, we would switch casts during the performance, so everyone had a chance to show and shine.

How did your camp schedule look like?

For the first couple of days, we had singing lessons with an Italian teacher who was very funny and friendly and for the rest of the days we would usually rehearse in groups and we would mix for breaks and lunches. The last two days we spent putting it all together like checking the lighting and microphones and we also crafted props. In the end we had a real professional performance in the theater with the audience and tickets.

What did you rehearse?

We were rehearsing for the Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi. We would have a couple of people playing a doll and I was “the head” of it and I would stay on the stage throughout the performance. We also learned how to make all the parts of the puppet’s body which was a big fun.

Were there any artists visiting the camp?

Yes, we had some singers, musicians and conductor that came to the camp on the last two days. They rehearsed with the orchestra. We also went to the Festival House to see the original Falstaff opera. And then some artists came to the camp and explained how they worked on the production. Everyone asked the director what the play was about because we all got very confused, and he said that that was his main goal. We also met the singer who played the main part and he talked to us about the role and the character of Flastaff.

There was also a woman, a puppeteer who taught us how to make a puppet of Falstaff. First, we rehearsed with the dummy that was not super neat. We learned how to move around with it and not to destroy the actual doll. On the last day of the camp the puppeteer created a very beautiful head and gave Falstaff the hair and that was the prop that we used at the performance.

How did you like Salzburg’s original version of Falstaff?

The Flastaff version that we watched was very confusing but at the same time funny and interesting. It was this story about how a director is directing a movie, I think it was the Falstaff movie, but then he also gets himself into a similar scenario and it all gets mixed up. No one could understand what was happening on the stage and as we know now that was the director’s purpose, to get people confused.

Did you go to see an opera for the first time?

No, saw operas before. But it was the first time in Salzburg for me and it was a very unique experience.

What advice would you give to the new camp applicants?

I would advise not to be anxious and scared, because I was at the beginning. But in fact, these camps are the place for everyone, and everyone finds a friend or a few there. I would also recommend to look and explore what the camps are about before you go. I didn’t and it was a big disadvantage. If you play any instrument, practice in advance. You will have time at the camp, but you would benefit if you learned the scores prior to the camp.

How was your stage experience?

I have never been involved into an actual production before and it felt very surreal. There were microphones and lighting and a smoke machine that all the kids were crazy about! There were a lot of props too and it all felt like super professional! We did a lot of rehearsing, so you get used to be around your fellow actors and then you do not see the crowd well. So even if you have a stage fright, you can’t get really anxious. They can see you, but you can’t see them, and you are backed up by your friends.

How frustrating was the fact that the final performance was in German?

I wanted to stick to the original script. I could have done my part in English, but I chose to do it in German. I wanted to preserve the Austrian identity of the performance. I was told that previously they used a mix of languages in other plays, but I didn’t want to change anything.

Did you have a good time overall?

I think everyone had a very good time not only because we could put together and do a real performance but also outside the rehearsal schedule, we all made friends. I have never seen anyone being alone there.

Would you go again?

I’d love to go again! The camps are quite selective, so I am not sure if I get chosen this time. But if you have a chance, definitely go! It’s an extraordinary and fun experience.

Is it possible to somehow work on increasing your chances to go?

Yes, I personally am working on improving my instrumental skills, so this time I could apply as a musician.