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COURSE LABORATORIES

Creative music laboratories connecting training and production

The Accademia Chigiana’s summer advanced training courses include production laboratories that allow students to take part in a unique and comprehensive experience of learning and creation within the context of the Chigiana International Festival & Summer Academy.

CHIGIANA OPERALAB

The Chigiana OperaLab was launched in previous years within the summer advanced courses in Orchestral Conducting and Voice, at the initiative and by the will of teachers Daniele Gatti and William Matteuzzi. The project takes shape as an advanced laboratory dedicated to musical theatre, conceived to offer an integrated and highly professional training experience.
The programme is mainly aimed at young singers and young conductors enrolled in the Accademia Musicale Chigiana’s advanced courses, while also involving a wide range of experienced professionals from the live performance sector. These include stage directors, set designers, costume designers, choreographers, lighting designers, and instrumental ensembles, all called to collaborate actively in the creation of the artistic project. This structure enables students to engage with the complexity of the operatic production process, fostering a concrete and in-depth understanding of the artistic, technical and organisational dynamics of musical theatre.
The Chigiana OperaLab therefore represents a true work experience, in which the educational moment is organically integrated with production and public performance. It offers students a unique training opportunity, rarely found in traditional academic paths. Stage experience, lived within a professional context and under the guidance of leading artists and teachers, is a central element of the programme, allowing students to apply acquired skills and measure themselves against the responsibilities and expectations of performance practice.
Within the framework of the Chigiana International Festival & Summer Academy, the Chigiana OperaLab contributes significantly to the Academy’s mission, reinforcing its role as a centre of excellence for advanced training in musical theatre and confirming the institution’s commitment to innovative teaching models capable of combining advanced education, artistic production and public engagement.
After pilot experiences between 2018 and 2020 with productions of Handel’s “Il Trionfo del tempo e del disinganno”, Paisiello’s “Il barbiere di Siviglia” (also presented in China at the NCPA in Beijing), and Pergolesi’s “La serva padrona”, from 2021 the Accademia Chigiana launched the Chigiana OperaLab to develop in a stable and organic way its opera production activities.
The Chigiana OperaLab has involved major professionals in stage production, including directors Lorenzo Mariani, Cesare Scarton, Florentine Klepper and Davide Garattini; set designers William Orlandi and Francesco Bonati; lighting designers Roberto Venturi, Fabio Barettin, Marco Filibeck and Luca Bronzo; young singers from the Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; and trainees from the Accademia della Scala, the Verona Opera Academy and the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. The laboratory has collaborated with the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana and the Orchestra Senzaspine of Bologna, ensembles in residence for the Conducting course.
In 2021 the Chigiana OperaLab staged Rossini’s “L’occasione fa il ladro, ovvero lo scambio della valigia”. In 2022 it produced Rossini’s “Il Signor Bruschino, ossia il figlio per azzardo”, a one-act farsa giocosa on a libretto by Giuseppe Maria Foppa, based on the comedy “Le fils par hasard, ou Ruse et folie” by Alissan de Chazet and Maurice Ourry. The production was later restaged at Teatro Duse in Bologna.
From 2023 the Chigiana OperaLab expanded its activities with two stage productions: the original staging of “Trilogia verdiana”, within the Conducting course, centred on excerpts from Verdi’s operas (“La traviata”, “Rigoletto” and “Falstaff”, with two performances at Teatro dei Rinnovati), directed by Lorenzo Mariani. The second production, within the Voice course, featured the original staging of a double bill consisting of Monteverdi’s “Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda” and Donizetti’s theatrical farce “Il campanello di notte” (29 July, Teatro dei Rozzi), directed by Cesare Scarton.
In 2024 the ChigianaOperaLab produced two further stagings: an original production of Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale” within the Conducting course, in collaboration with the Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, directed by Lorenzo Mariani (two performances, 22 and 24 July, Teatro dei Rinnovati), and Britten’s “The Turn of the Screw”, in a staging from the Mozarteum University Salzburg, with the Mozarteum Chamber Orchestra conducted by Kai Röhrig, students of the Voice course and direction by Florentine Klepper (two performances, 9 and 10 August, Teatro dei Rozzi).
In 2025 the ChigianaOperaLab staged an original double bill consisting of Luigi Dallapiccola’s “Il Prigioniero” (on the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death), in a version for voice and piano, and Francis Poulenc’s tragédie lyrique “La voix humaine”, also in a version for voice and piano. This production (limited to Dallapiccola’s “Il Prigioniero”) will also be presented at the Piccolo Opera Festival in Gorizia. Students of the Voice course were the protagonists, together with the Siena Cathedral Choir “Guido Chigi Saracini”, conducted by Lorenzo Donati, and pianists Luigi Pecchia and Francesco De Poli. Musical direction was entrusted to Mario Ruffini, with stage direction by Davide Garattini and sets by Domenico Franchi.
In 2026 the Chigiana OperaLab will produce Mozart’s opera “Don Giovanni”, in a staging from the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale of Spoleto, directed by Henning Brockhaus, with choreography by Valentina Escobar, sets and costumes by Giancarlo Colis, lighting design by Eva Bruno, and musical direction by Nicolò Jacopo Suppa for the chamber ensemble of the Orchestra Fondazione Luciano Pavarotti.

BAROQUELAB

The BaroqueLab is a laboratory dedicated to historically informed performance practice in baroque musical theatre and early music with period instruments, created in collaboration with the Department of Early Music of the Mozarteum University Salzburg within the “Chigiana-Mozarteum Baroque Program”.
The “Chigiana-Mozarteum Baroque Program” is dedicated to the study of Baroque repertoire, historically informed performance practice and the technical aspects of performing on period instruments. It includes courses such as: Baroque Singing, Harpsichord, continuo and fortepiano, Composition for early instruments, Recorder, Traverso flute, Baroque oboe, Performance practice for violin and viola, Viola da gamba and viol consort, and Baroque cello, taught by Lisandro Abadie, Florian Birsak, Alfredo Bernardini, Elisa Citterio, Hiro Kurosaki, Simone Fontanelli, Marcello Gatti, Vittorio Ghielmi, Dorothee Oberlinger, Sara Mingardo and Marco Testori.
In 2026 the courses within the “Chigiana-Mozarteum Baroque Program” at the Accademia Chigiana Summer Academy will include: Baroque singing (two courses), Harpsichord, continuo and fortepiano, Composition for early instruments, Traverso flute, Baroque oboe, Performance practice for violin and viola, Viola da gamba and viol consort, and Baroque cello, taught by Sara Mingardo, Lisandro Abadie, Florian Birsak, Alfredo Bernardini, Elisa Citterio, Simone Fontanelli, Marcello Gatti, Vittorio Ghielmi and Marco Testori.
The Chigiana BaroqueLab aims to extend participation to other fields such as stage direction, set and costume design and technical areas (lighting designers, stage technicians…), involving for the performance aspect the Opera and Musical Theatre Department of the Mozarteum University Salzburg and guest professionals in addition to the teachers already present.
In 2022 the BaroqueLab produced the baroque opera La Senna festeggiante, a serenata for three voices and orchestra by Antonio Vivaldi, which received the ADUIM Prize awarded by the Italian Association of University Music Teachers for productions where musicological research and performance practice meet fruitfully. In 2023 it staged “Dido & Aeneas” by Henry Purcell together with the contemporary opera “Elissa” by Henry Fourès, co-produced with the Mozarteum University Salzburg and directed by Rosamund Gilmore.
For the 2024 edition, the BaroqueLab presented “Baroque Night” with musicians from the Mozarteum University Salzburg and the Royal College of Music in London.
In 2025 the staged production of the oratorio “La Giuditta” by Alessandro Scarlatti was realised, conducted by Vittorio Ghielmi for the 300th anniversary of the composer’s death. The production was completed with the world premiere of a new scenic creation by French composer Yann Robin, conducted by Kai Röhrig and directed by Florentine Klepper.
In 2026 the BaroqueLab will produce Bach’s “Mass in B minor” (BWV 232) for soloists, choir and orchestra, conducted by Alfredo Bernardini with the Siena Cathedral Choir “Guido Chigi Saracini” conducted by Lorenzo Donati. This production will be previewed in Salzburg in May during the Mozarteum’s BarockNacht, one of the most prestigious events dedicated to baroque music.
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COMPOSITION LABORATORY

The Composition Laboratory is intended for students of the Composition course taught by Salvatore Sciarrino. It benefits from the collaboration of artists in residence for the course: MDI Ensemble (flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, percussion), Matteo Cesari (flute / alto flute) and Paolo Ravaglia (clarinet / bass clarinet).
At the end of the laboratory, some of the original compositions created by the young students are performed in concert within the Chigiana International Festival & Summer Academy and recorded according to the highest audiovisual standards.

LIVE ELECTRONICS LABORATORY

The Live electronics creation laboratory, dedicated to new intermedial languages, is intended for students of the Live electronics. Sound & music computing course taught by Alvise Vidolin and Nicola Bernardini, in collaboration with the SaMPL laboratory of the “Cesare Pollini” Conservatory in Padua. The laboratory is aimed at composers who wish to deepen creative aspects in the realisation of concerts with live electronics. The goal is to create original compositions for solo instrument with live electronics: the electronic part is developed during lessons and performed by the students themselves in concert, while the instrumental or vocal part is performed by students of the Accademia Chigiana summer courses. In addition to performing the electronic parts, issues related to capture, processing and spatialisation of live sound are addressed, also with a view to documentation work to be carried out in post-production.
Laboratory activities are complemented by public lectures given by leading professionals in the field. In 2026 the Live Electronics Laboratory will host a four-day seminar led by composer Philippe Manoury and engineer and mathematician Miller Puckette, author of the renowned MAX software, the global standard for computer music composition. The CLEE–Chigiana Live Electronics Ensemble was formed within the laboratory and takes part in concerts of the Chigiana International Festival that involve live electronics.