UBI FLORET INGENIUM

Mascarade Opera is designed specifically for the career development of outstanding young singers and répétiteurs. The emerging artist programme aims to support the very greatest international talent from diverse backgrounds, which is why places on the programme are entirely funded for up to 12 Mascarade Emerging Artists per year. The two-year programme not only covers full tuition and accommodation costs but also provides young artists with an annual stipend equivalent to entry-level salaried positions in the industry. As well as receiving intensive year-round training in a range of disciplines required of elite performers, Mascarade Emerging Artists can expect to benefit from an annual showcase production, prestigious orchestral galas and a number of roles at partnering opera houses to help launch their professional careers from the very city where the art form was born.Mascarade Opera additionally presents an annual concert series and large-scale co-productions together with the New Generation Festival which form part of the New Generation Foundation’s broader mission to champion great musical traditions and sustain their future.

THE FIRST EDITION

The NGF presented the finest talents in opera and across the arts in spectacular locations, ranging from the Swiss mountains of Andermatt to its flagship summer festival in Florence. Inspired by the achievements of the Italian Renaissance, the NGF celebrated creativity and stimulated it through the connection of art forms, cultures and generations.In August 2020, the first summer of the Covid-19 pandemic, the NGF staged The ReGeneration Festival in partnership with The Uffizi Galleries at the landmark Boboli Gardens to demonstrate the importance of sustaining the performing arts in times of crisis.

THE OPERA PROGRAMME

Following the success of The ReGeneration Festival, the NGF founders decided to establish a year-round opera programme and to consolidate their goal of creating exceptional training and professional opportunities for outstanding young artists under the aegis of their foundation in Florence - the Fondazione Mascarade Opera.The three founders are recipients of the city’s ‘Silver Florin’ decoration and have been appointed Honorary Ambassadors of Florence.

PORTRAIT CYCLE

The first is a new cycle of ten portraits that will hang on the walls of the foundation’s grand ‘Salone dei Concerti’. The portraits will be painted by Jamie Coreth who has, since graduating from both Florence’s Academy of Art and Charles Cecil Studios, become one of today’s most celebrated young painters. Coreth is a winner of the BP Young Artist Award and has had several works exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London, the latest of which is his much-admired portrait of The Prince and Princess of Wales. Inspired by the humanist themes of the Renaissance, Coreth’s cycle will draw on Ovid’s Metamorphoses to symbolise the transformative power of the arts.

FRESCO CYCLE

The offer of Medicean immortalisation also spreads beyond these ten frames with the second artistic initiative - a new fresco cycle to cover the entirety of the Salone dei Concerti above and around the portraits. The cycle is being commissioned n collaboration with the Florence Academy of Art from a revived ‘Florentine Camerata’ of fresco artists led by renowned painter, Tom Richards, who will paint the foundation’s 21st-century story.