History

The Accademia was born in 1989 as part of the Rossini Opera Festival and was directed until 2016 by Alberto Zedda, to whom it was named after his death. Since 2017, the current director, Ernesto Palacio, has been in charge.

The academy was created to train a new generation of singers who are willing to learn the mentality, culture and style of Belcantismo. Every year its courses produce vocal talents capable of bringing a distinctive approach to Rossini’s music to theatres all over the world. Many of them have found their first professional outlet at the Festival and have gone on to enjoy successful careers.

All this has contributed to a radical change in the panorama of international opera: works that until recently were considered unperformable due to the lack of singers capable of interpreting them are now in the repertoire of the great theatres; just think of the countless performances of Viaggio a Reims, rediscovered after more than a century and a half of oblivion and now a regular guest on the world’s billboards.