Longhorn Lecture
Resource Guide for Singing in Germany Seminar
University of Texas at Austin - Butler Opera Center
BOOKS
What the Fach?! (Second Edition): The Definitive Guide for Opera Professionals Auditioning and Working in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland by Philip Shepard and edited by Sarah Kirstine Schafer
Published in 2010, this book was written by a full-time opera singer working in Europe and considered an invaluable resource and a must have for every singer wanting to break into the German-speaking opera world.
Singing Opera in Germany - A Practical Guide by Marita Knobel and Brigitte Steinert
A practical and detailed ‘users guide’ to working within the German theater system. Published in 2005, it is slightly outdated but still the most detailed guide to life within the German theater system.
Das Handbuch der Oper (in German) by Rudolf Kloiber, Wulf Konold and Robert Maschka
A definitive guide to the casting and plots of 340 operas. It also includes an explanation of the Fachsystem and lists much of the operatic repertoire complete with a synopsis, list of roles with their Fach classification.
Deutsches Bühnen Jahrbuch (in German)
The edition contains about 1,100 pages of the personnel directories of the theaters in the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, the German-speaking theaters in Switzerland as well as the addresses of other important theaters in Europe. In addition, there is information about radio and television companies, orchestras, festivals, associations from the fields of theater, film and radio, an annual chronicle with artist data and the German-language premieres, statistics, the artist FOTO archive and an extensive name register.
German for Musicians by Josephine Barber
”German for Musicians is an intensive course for beginners, a refresher for those with some German, and a reader for those who need to practice translating musical texts.”
WEBSITES
Directory of Opera Houses in Germany
Operabase Directory
Deutscher Bühnenverein
Directory of Agents/Artist Managers in Germany
Operabase Directory
Zentrale Auslands - und Fachvermittlung (ZAV)
Random Websites
A Career Guide from the Neue Stimmen Vocal Competition (2017)
A blog post which discusses Fach from the Handbuch der Oper and includes a list of the Kloiber Fachpartien
”How Germany is Saving Classical Opera” - a 2014 Newsweek article
And a Vocabulary List for your travel, study and audition in Germany from “What the Fach?”
RECOMMENDED COMPETITIONS
Neue Stimmen (Gütersloh, Germany)
Operalia (international, varying locations)
ARD-Wettbewerb (Munich, Germany)
Debut Bad Mergentheim (Germany)
Belvedere Singing Competition (Vienna, Austria)
Comeptizione dell’Opera (Germany)
Mozart-Wettbewerb (Salzburg, Austria)
Queen Sonja Competition (Norway)
Francisco Viñás (Barcelona, Spain)
Mirjam Helin (Helsinki, Finland)
Queen Elisabeth (Brussels, Belgium)
Verviers (Belgium)
Feruccio Tagliarvini (Austria)
Boris Christoph Competition (Bulgaria)
Vocal Genial (Munich, Germany)
Richard Wagner-Wettbewerb (Bayreuth, Germany)
Dvořák Competition (Karlsbad, Czech Republic)
International Vocal Competition s’Hertogenbosch (Holland)
Geneva International Music Competition (Switzerland)
Opera Competition (Toulouse, France)
Voci Verdiane (Busseto, Italy)
Gian Battista Viotte (Vercelli, Italy)
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Nuremberg, Germany)
RECOMMENDED OPERNSTUDIOS/YOUNG ARTIST PROGRAMS
Opera de Paris
Opernstudio Weimar
Krefeld-Mönchengladbach
Junges Ensemble Semperoper Dresden
Opernstudio Frankfurt
Opernstudio Hamburg
Opernstudio Basel
Opernstudio Nürnberg
Opernstudio Deutsche Oper am Rhein
Opernstudio Karlsruhe
Opernstudio Köln
Opernstudio Stuttgart
Opernstudio Berlin Unter den Linden
Komische Oper Berlin
Opernstudio Graz
Opernstudio Hannover
Opernstudio Mannheim
Opernstudio Zürich
Young Opera Deutsche Oper Berlin
Accademia della Scala Milano
Thank you to Emily Newton who so graciously shared her lists of competitions and Opernstudios with me…
…and to Dr. Brian Hsu who has been helping me improve my Zoom skills during the pandemic.