Province/Territory: Ontario
City: Toronto
Role(s) in this year's festival:
Poppea (Understudy): "The Coronation of Poppea"
Ensemble: "Tuck Everlasting"
Previous NUOVA Roles:
2019 - Participant in the 10-Day Intensive Program
I am preparing for Opera NUOVA’s program this year by taking the skills I have learned in school to help me prepare my role. As I prepare my role, I have spent lots of time reading through the text and doing any necessary background research to help me understand the story in its entirety. Repetition is key for me when it comes to learning any music. This helps me to memorize my role faster, and allows me to connect to the music both emotionally and physically.
What attracted me to Opera NUOVA was my experience in NUOVA’s 10-Day Intensive Program. I had the honour of taking part in the 10-day program back in 2019. I learned so much during that time period, I knew I wanted to come back and take part in the Young Artists Program. I specifically chose this year to attend Opera NUOVA because I wanted to gain a lot of experience in role preparation as well as improve on all my skills as a performer, prior to entering my last year of my Masters degree.
Artist Bio
Sabrina Di Battista is a Master’s degree candidate at the Manhattan School of Music, studying under the direction of Harolyn Blackwell. Ms. Di Battista has been very fortunate to travel abroad and within Canada to benefit from a variety of summer programs, including the COSI Academy, the Conservatoire de Lyon, and Opera NUOVA’s 10-Day Intensive Program, where she had many opportunities to collaborate with other student musicians. Previous credits include excerpts from Carmen (Frasquita) and Die Walküre (Ortlinda). She performed full roles in The Tenderland (Chorus, Laurie Understudy) and Cendrillon (La Fée). As the winner of the 2018 WLU Concerto Competition, Ms. Di Battista had the opportunity to sing with the Wilfrid Laurier Symphony Orchestra. She had the honour of premiering a new opera, Katie: The Strongest of the Strong, in New York City during her fall semester at the Manhattan School of Music. Ms. Di Battista is overjoyed to be taking part in Opera NUOVA this year, and will continue her summer in Sulzberg, Austria, where she will be singing the title role of Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro.
