The prestigious and glamorous, Les Azuriales Opera Festival takes place every year in August, on the French Riviera, in the Villa Ephrussi, St.Jean Cap Ferat. For the last six years the festival has opened with the International Young Artists competition.
Drawing talented singers from all corners of the world, it has had some noteworthy successes in furthering the careers of participants, who are typically between 24 and 32 years old.
It isn’t widely known that the training to be an opera singer is typically longer than that required to be a doctor, and many students don’t begin to break through until their voice becomes fully developed in their late twenties - if they break through at all: as with most creative careers, many try but few succeed.
Ozone has sponsored this competition from its inception. Managing Director, Linda Fenwick, has taken a close personal interest in it and has been keen to work closely with Sarah Holford, Founder and President of the Festival, to improve the competition every year.
Talking to the young singers, it became apparent that most of them endured, rather than enjoyed, the round of competitions they embark on. Most of the time, it is simply seen as an outside chance to earn a few thousand euros to fund some more musical tuition. This seemed to Sarah and Linda to be a sorry state of affairs and they have therefore worked hard in 2008 to take Les Azuriales’ involvement with these young and talented singers to a new level, relaunching it as the Les Azuriales Ozone Young Artistes Programme.
For the singers who passed auditions to attend this year’s programme, it was much more than ‘another competition’. Sarah Holford put together a fantastic programme of coaching and support for the participants, which included Masterclasses with renowned mezzo, Sally Burgess, in front of an invited, knowledgeable and sympathetic audience. The public recital and competition was also warmly supported by many people who had arrived for the first professional productions of the festival.
It is surprising to note that, for much of the time, these poor travelling minstrels can go from competition to competition without any feedback at all. However, the judging panel at Les Az, which included world acclaimed soprano Lilian Watson, and the Musical Director of Diva Opera, Bryan Evans MBE made sure that each singer, whether a prize winner or no, received personal feedback on their performance.
Linda Fenwick was asked by some of the audience to explain why, without perhaps any obvious connection between her company and Opera, she chooses to give such wholehearted support to this event.
She says ‘There aren’t many things that are good about getting older but many of us have a bit more influence and even a bit more spending power than we did in our twenties. I feel it is up to those of us who have had successful careers to use this influence to bring the next generation along. I am passionate about helping emerging talent and giving these youngsters every opportunity and encouragement to excel at whatever their chosen field might be. We are just trying to make a small contribution to helping that process along’.
So where will the Ozone Les Azuriales collaboration goes next?
Next year Ozone are planning to hold an International HR Conference that coincides with the first weekend of the festival on the theme of ‘Managing Extreme Talent’ and pulling together some of the striking parallels between maximising the potential of high performers in the business and creative fields. More news on this soon.