Lyric Arts France and Festival Opéra Bastide 2027
Villefranche-de-Rouergue
June 28–August 1, 2027
The application process is now open, with an application deadline
of Tuesday 05 January 2027.
Catch the experience of Lyric Arts France in a preview version of a documentary video about the 2025 festival, made by Belgian filmmaker Werner Haegeman. [View the full documentary here.]
Training
Young Artists work in collaboration with world-class singers, directors, conductors, coaches, and choreographers, both in production rehearsals and in training sessions. These include individual and group vocal and repertoire coaching, masterclasses, auditioning classes, seminar sessions for directors and stage managers, and career seminars addressing opportunities in Europe and the United States. This is an international program and we work on international repertoire including French works, with daily French language classes available for non French-speaking participants.
Performing
As well as training the program has an equal emphasis on performing with many roles available in two fully staged opera productions with chamber orchestra, one staged cabaret, half a dozen major concerts including one exclusively for younger singers and many additional outreach performing opportunities.
Standard Daily Schedule
- 9:00–9:50 am non-French speakers can participate in a French language classes exclusively for our program
- 10:00 am–1:00 pm production and musical rehearsals
- 1:00–2:30 pm enjoy an extended French lunch!
- 2:30–3:50 pm reserved mostly for classes and masterclasses; we aim to provide each singer with at least one individual coaching/voice session per week, as well as group sessions
- 4:00–7:00 pm production and musical rehearsals
- 8:00–10:00 pm occasional ensemble rehearsals
Repertoire for 2027
Don Giovanni—Mozart
Sung in Italian
Four performances with orchestra in the Théâtre de la Bastide
Director Jonathan Eaton, Conductor Bernard McDonald
Mozart and DaPonte’s magnificent portrayal of appetite unbridled, vice untrammeled and its ultimate punishment—all in the last hectic day of life for opera’s most notorious rake as he careers headlong towards damnation. And in a bold stroke we offer the opportunity for an appropriately-voiced counter-tenor to play one of Giovanni’s paramours and victims…
L’Orphée aux Enfers—Offenbach
Sung in French
Four performances with orchestra in the Théâtre de la Bastide
Director Emily Noēl, Conductor TBA
Borrowing a little of the diabolical tone of Don Giovanni, and with a nod to last year’s more serious Orphée et Euridice, delight in the outrageous comedy of manners as our heroes and heroines can-can their way down to hell and back again. Ooo-là-là!
Au pays des Merveilles—Cabaret
Sung in a variety of languages
Two performances with piano and small ensemble in the grand Villefranche market hall, La Halle, followed by touring performances.
Director François Testory, Music Director Robert Frankenberry
This fully-staged dramatic cabaret loosely inspired by Alice in Wonderland and incorporating a wide variety of music including American musical theater and French and German popular song follows the major success of last year’s Cabaret Paris Berlin and is expected to tour to regional centers after its Villefranche performances. Perfect for singers wishing to enhance their crossover and musical theater skills, and to work with an established French director/choreographer. Be ready to dance—and to improvise!
Concerts with piano include:
Festival Gala—great operatic favorites in a great space, the chapel of the Pénitents Noirs
Les Troubadours—songs of the Auvergne and of Occitanie in the grand Halle
Les jeunes chanteurs présentent—a concert showcasing our younger singers
Outreach performances with piano include:
Public masterclasses led by one of our faculty each week
Les Fenêtres Ouvertes: we sing for literally thousands at the weekly market in the Place Nôtre Dame
Late-night cabarets: after our weekend opera performances, singers gather in the festival bar to let their hair down, usually into the small hours, with an informal presentation of popular music of their choice
Performances in community and senior citizens centers
The application process is now open, with an application deadline
of Tuesday 05 January 2027.
Solo and Ensemble Roles
We work hard to cast all Young Artists in as many appropriate solo roles as possible, as well as in all cover roles. All opera roles are double-cast, and operas are given in multiple performances, so that each cast has opportunities to sing the role. Most artists also sing and dance in the ensemble for larger operas, and all participate in the concerts and optional late-night cabaret programs as well.
All roles in all productions are currently open to Young Artists. Unusually good countertenors are encouraged apply for Elvira in Don Giovanni and—who knows—Orphée as well?!.
This year we are building on the successful tier we introduced last year for younger singers, called Apprentice Artists. As well as participating in the full range of class activities, these singers will perform in the choruses of Don Giovanni and Orphée, take on understudy opportunities, participate in our musical theater activities, and perform as soloists in a new concert geared especially towards Apprentice and Studio Artists, the Les jeunes chanteurs présentent.
Tuition and Accommodation Fees
Tuition for the Young Artist Program including individual coachings and voice lessons as well as group sessions is $3,500 (USD). Housing through the festival can be added if desired for $1,100 (USD). Prices are quoted in US dollars but can be paid in a variety of currencies. This tuition rate is significantly less than many other European Young Artist Programs of this length and caliber, a number of which do not offer inexpensive housing options.
Scholarships
A number of full and partial scholarships will be available—see Scholarships for more details.
Auditions
Auditions are submitted as online video recordings via the website yaptracker.com. Please note that recorded videos must be uploaded as a part of the application process.
Repertoire for auditions: you need to offer at least three numbers, all videoed, and if you have videos of you performing something on stage that is good too though not essential. At least one of the numbers should be in French. While it is not required, performing something from an opera we are performing that you are interested in always help.
A modest Application Fee of $30 is payable on submission of audition materials, also via the website yaptracker.com.
Dates and Deadlines
Applications are open now until casting is concluded; offers will be made starting in early December. To secure your position, a deposit of $750 USD will be required within two weeks of role acceptance.
Tuition and accommodation fees are payable by March 31, 2027.
Transportation to and from the program and food are not covered.
Agents, company representatives, referrals
Career-ready artists sometimes ask us about how we can help them with their next step up the career ladder. All of our most experienced international faculty work with us because we want to pass the torch on the next generation. Among those who have worked extensively in Europe and America's biggest opera houses, Jeff Martin has an extensive European network, and Jonathan Eaton has connections with European and American houses. All of our faculty have made successful referrals in the past and are happy to try to make connections for you if the time is right.
Age limits
While we have no particular age limits for admission to the Young Artists Program, we anticipate that most singers’ ages will range from early twenties to mid-thirties.
Work and play
Our French hosts may organize side-trips and visits in the neighboring countryside as appropriate and time allows. However please be aware that this is a program where, in order to achieve the highest artistic standards, you will work hard six days a week and, on rare occasions, for three sessions a day…and this is good!
