Thank you for your interest in Teatro Nuovo's 2025 Resident Artist Program. Applications are now closed. If you wish to request consideration for a post-deadline application, please write to auditions@teatronuovo.org. These will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Eligibilities:

Restrictions

All positions must be filled either by US citizens or permanent residents; by singers with sufficient credentials to qualify for an artist visa; or by singers with OPT/CPT eligibility.

Age Limit

No limit

Application:

Deadline

Applications must be received by Friday, September 13, 2024.

Materials Required

Two recent recordings (made within the last 24 months) and a current résumé must be included as part of the completed application form.

At least one of the recordings should be in video form. The selections may be in any genre (opera, song, or oratorio), any period, and any language, but please bear in mind that we specialize in 19th-century Italian opera, and take a moment to read the section “what we’re looking for” below.

Application Form

https://forms.gle/PcM8jQeV4AnRUAvK6

Late Applications

Anyone wishing to apply after September 13 will not be able to fill out the audition form, but instead should write to us at the e-mail address below to inquire about the possibility. We will evaluate such requests on a case-by-case basis.

Audition Information:

Audition Requirements

If granted an audition, you should bring repertory that shows the following (whether in separate pieces or together in a single piece):

Long, slow, legato, romantic lines
Coloratura agility
Recitative in Italian

Some things to note about choice of repertory:

Baroque, Classical, and Romantic repertory are all welcome
We don’t mind if you sing some pieces on-book
Oratorio, song, and opera are all welcome

Audition location and dates:

We will hold three Friday-Saturday audition sequences in New York City (Oct. 4-5, 11-12, 18-19) for which we will provide a pianist (see below). Each applicant should select a first-choice audition date, and if more than one date is possible, please indicate second and third choices as well. Some contract offers may be made before the end of the audition period, so it is an advantage to choose an early date if possible.
Applicants who cannot make any of these dates should select “Off-cycle audition” on the Application Form. We will attempt to accommodate any date in October 2024 that you are able to be in New York, but if it is a date outside our scheduled weekends you will need to bring your own pianist.
Applicants who cannot travel to New York at all should select “Remote audition” on the Application Form. In some cases we may schedule a virtual audition via Zoom, or in others we may arrange for a TN representative to hear you in person in another location.
Callbacks: On our New York audition weekends, we will be holding callbacks for selected singers on the evening of the second day of each audition block (Oct. 5, 12, 19). If you are auditioning in New York, please make every attempt to hold those evenings open for a possible callback.

Pianist Provided

Applicants auditioning within our three scheduled audition blocks may bring their own pianists, or may use the pianist provided by Teatro Nuovo for a fee of $25 payable to the pianist directly at the time of audition. As noted above, singers auditioning outside those scheduled blocks must provide their own pianist.

Program Information:

Location

New York, NY and Montclair, NJ, USA

Season Information

Our repertoire for the summer of 2025 will include Macbeth (Verdi, 1847 version) and La Sonnambula (Bellini), as well as concert programs to be determined.

Program Dates

June 04, 2025 - July 24, 2025 [see explanation below]

Please note: The program will last for 6 weeks within the period listed above. Exact start and end dates will be determined once we have scheduling confirmation from our theater and campus partners.

Who we are

Teatro Nuovo is an opera company presenting performances in and near New York City, accompanied by an innovative training program designed to provide opportunities and information not generally available elsewhere. Its unusual features include the collaboration of America’s only dedicated period-instrument opera orchestra; in-depth seminars and lessons in historical performance practice and ornamentation by Will Crutchfield; and an intensive Italian-language program directed by Lucy Yates. For more details about our goals and faculty, please visit TeatroNuovo.org. The operas performed since our debut season in 2018 are Mayr’s Medea in Corinto; Rossini’s Tancredi, La Gazza Ladra, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Maometto Secondo; Bellini’s La Straniera and I Capuleti e i Montecchi; Donizetti’s Poliuto; the Ricci brothers’ Crispino e la Comare; and Uccelli’s Anna di Resburgo.

What we offer

Our summer training program supports the overall mission of Teatro Nuovo: cutting-edge interpretation of classic Italian repertory. We see a need for a program that does not try to focus on the “everything” of opera, but instead works with the greatest possible depth and intensity on a narrow group of topics directly related to the performance of the score. For more about our curriculum, see https://www.teatronuovo.org/vocal-program.

What we're looking for

Among the many qualities that can make a successful opera singer, we are looking for certain ones that fit Teatro Nuovo's style and mission. Please read through the following; if this describes you—or the singer you think you can become—then you and TN may be right for each other.

We want you to be a strong musician. The singers who get the most out of our program are generally ace sight-readers or super-fast ear learners, who can grasp Bel Canto passages easily and execute them accurately without prolonged study. We need singers who can "get the notes right" quickly as we try out different ornaments and cadenzas.
We want you to be an independent thinker. We are looking for singers who do not need a coach to teach them the music or spoon-feed its interpretation. We will challenge you with specialized historical information, but we also want you to bring your own expertise and opinions to the table.
We want you to be technically ambitious. A fundamental part of TN's mission is to uphold demanding standards of vocal function: perfect legato; consistency and power throughout the range; mastery of registration; fine control of dynamics without compromise of vocal timbre; easily intelligible vowels and consonants; crystal-clear agility. We want singers who are eager to remedy any shortfall in these areas, and eager to take the strengths they already have to the highest possible level.
We want you to love Italian. High-level interpretation of Italian opera requires understanding its poetry. We need you to be committed to learning (and/or learning more about) the mother tongue of Bel Canto.
We want you to be open-minded and imaginative. Teatro Nuovo presents interpretations that are in some ways "non-standard" for the mainstream opera world. We are not very interested in "the way it's usually done." We are very interested in "the way(s) it was done at the time," because performance styles of the distant past open up such a wide field for creativity and expression.

A few other notes about our selection process

We are diverse and inclusive. Teatro Nuovo welcomes singers of all backgrounds, origins, orientations, and gender identifications. We are interested in your voice, your chops, your expressiveness, your musicianship, and your capacity for hard work. We are not so interested in your school, your look, your clothes, "who you know," or what programs you have done before.
Queremos mucho a los hispanohablantes. Su herencia lingüística y cultural aporta un ingrediente precioso a la mezcla del Bel Canto. Si logramos inscribir a un grupo suficiente, ofreceremos clases de "italiano basado en español." Además nos interesaría investigar el repertorio poco conocido de canciones y romanzas con letra castellana en estilo operístico del siglo XIX.
If we are right for each other, don't let money or timing stand in the way. Although live auditions are always preferable, we recognize that not every qualified singer has a travel budget, and we also recognize that other responsibilities may prevent you from being in New York during our audition period. If either of those is your situation, please take advantage of the option to request an off-cycle or remote audition.

Compensation

All Resident Artists are hired as employees of Teatro Nuovo for the entire six-week period. The salary range is from a base of $3,600 to approximately $5,000, based on assignments that will be specified at the time offers are made. Those assignments include covering principal roles and singing or covering smaller roles.

Housing

Teatro Nuovo makes a contribution to the housing and/or commuting expenses of its Resident Artists, but does not cover the entire cost. Montclair State University offers housing at a rate of $50 a day, and Teatro Nuovo will contribute $25 per day above and beyond your salary for participants choosing this option. On-campus housing at Montclair State University consists of an individual air-conditioned bedroom in a shared apartment, with a full kitchen, shared living room, and two full bathrooms.

Alternatively, participants who have access to housing within commuting distance of Montclair may choose instead to live off campus and receive up to $25 per day for reimbursement of documented travel and/or housing expenditures.

Free parking is available to both commuters and residents near the residence buildings (there is also paid parking available next to the rehearsal area). Commuting via public transportation is also possible from anywhere in the New York area.

Meals

Reasonably priced dining is available on-campus Monday through Thursday. On Fridays Teatro Nuovo provides lunch for the entire company. Teatro Nuovo also provides full kitchen equipment for each on-campus apartment so that meals can be prepared “at home” when necessary or desired. Grocery delivery services are available to facilitate in-apartment cooking.