The Academy for advanced training and professional placement for opera singers and accompanists at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa was founded in 2021 as an educational and artistic program for young singers and pianists, serving as a bridge between academic studies and entry into the Italian professional world.

Since the first edition, artistic direction has been entrusted to Genoese tenor Francesco Meli, who, with his theatrical experience, has defined the educational and artistic guidelines, formulating individual and collective study plans focusing on vocal technique and interpretation, stagecraft, music theory, formal and functional analysis, and body awareness. After a selection process and an immersive study experience lasting several months, the young artists make their debut on the stage of the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, which every year programs the last title of the season with the talents of the Academy. The productions staged in the early years were L’elisir d’amore, Il turco in Italia, Don Pasquale, Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Die Zauberflöte. During the first edition, a Sky Classica production entitled Destinazione Palcoscenico (Destination Stage) was also created, recounting all the stages of the project.

In the 2024 edition, alongside preparations for the opera and with the availability of the Teatro della Gioventù, the Academy’s artistic program also included five other productions, including operas and concerts, designed around the students’ vocal ranges: Pigmalione and Il conte Ugolino by Gaetano Donizetti, Phaedra by Benjamin Britten (all directed by Fabio Sparvoli), La serva padrona by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (directed by Marina Bianchi), Giovanna d’Arco by Gioachino Rossini, Le Poème et de la mer op. 19 by Ernest Chausson, Don Quichotte à Dulcinée by Maurice Ravel, and Les Chansons de Don Quichotte by Jaques Ibert. In the 2025 edition, thanks to an important collaboration with the Rossini in Wildbad Festival, the Academy created a co-production of Manuel García’s Un avvertimento ai gelosi (A Warning to the Jealous) for six singers and piano, directed by Jochen Schönleber, which was staged in seven performances in Genoa and at the Wildbad Festival.

IThe educational and artistic project conceived by Francesco Meli was realized thanks to the collaboration with pianist Davide Cavalli, responsible for the musical preparation of young singers and pianists, and Serena Gamberoni, responsible for teaching singing and coordinating the entire Academy. The masterclasses held over the years have seen the participation of big names from the international opera scene, such as Francisco Araiza, Daniela Barcellona, Paolo Bordogna, Patrizia Ciofi, Roberto de Candia, Rosa Feola, Chris Merrit, Elisabeth Norberg-Schulz, Leo Nucci, Michele Pertusi, Vittorio Terranova, and Riccardo Zanellato. guest pianists have included Michele D’Elia and Giulio Zappa; and directors involved in the stage art lessons have included Giorgia Guerra, Silvia Paoli, and Fabio Sparvoli.

Finally, great importance is given to body awareness, protection, and control of the entire vocal apparatus. All young singers are regularly monitored by a phoniatrist and a voice osteopath and are introduced to Gyrokinesis, led by Francesca Sassu.

The project for the sixth edition in 2026 primarily involves the study, preparation, and staging of Giacomo Puccini’s opera La bohème (with a double cast).