Such as the greatest number of public performances in one season. And the largest number of operas, with the widest range of languages and styles. Plus the biggest freshman class in the school's history.

The prestigious AVA, founded in 1933 in the throes of the Great Depression, has always seen to it that all students receive full scholarships from a growing grab bag of endowments. The 12 freshmen include a growing proportion of Latinos, Asians and Russians, and this affects the choice of repertoire. "For instance," says AVA music director Christofer Macatsoris, "we have two Latino baritones and they'll be perfect in The Barber of Seville, where the action takes place, of course, in Spain. They'll even be able to play guitar onstage."

Of course, that Rossini opera is actually in Italian. While there's no Spanish-language opera on the schedule, this is an astonishingly multilingual season. Vanessa is in English, Eugene Onegin in Russian, Manon in French and Der Freischütz in German. This is the first time that AVA has presented five different languages in one year.

"That ties in with our mission to prepare students for international careers," says Macatsoris. In addition to the variety of languages, each is in a different style. The Barber is bel canto, Freischütz is early romantic, Manon is classic, Onegin is ultra-romantic Tchaikovsky and Vanessa is 20th-century American by Philadelphia's Samuel Barber.

Two other events on AVA's calendar supply experience for budding opera singers. October 6 is the Giargiari & Son Bel Canto Competition, preparing the vocalists for contests and auditions, and in December is Jubilate!, a concert of sacred music, an essential genre for any singer's repertoire. Starting last year, the winner of the Bel Canto was selected by a consensus of judges, the audience in the hall and listeners to the radio broadcast. (That system will be used again.) Their unanimous choice was tenor Stephen Costello, who now is entering his senior year at AVA and will star in Manon in April and May. He'll also take time away from AVA during the year to star in L'Elisir d'amore in Bordeaux, France. Meanwhile, 2006 AVA graduate James Valenti makes his New York City Opera debut in September and AVA is organizing a group to go up and celebrate.

Manon

The AVA has added a South Jersey venue, a large auditorium at the Commerce Bank Arts Centre in Washington Township, so productions can mount more performances than ever. Sets are designed and built to fit the compact stage in the AVA's town house at 1920 Spruce Street and then opened up to fit the larger stages in Haverford, Bucks County and now South Jersey.

At a time of agitation about the influx of immigrants, AVA is welcoming many of them. Foreign-born students from Asia and Eastern Europe have integrated into AVA's student body and more are coming from Mexico, South America and the Caribbean. Executive director K. James McDowell met with Mexico's cultural minister to set up auditions in Mexico City for AVA scholarships. "Generally we don't cast by ethnicity," says Macatsoris. "The Barber of Seville is an exception. We found wonderful singers with the right lyric voices who happened to be of Spanish heritage."

Macatsoris points out that operas are chosen based on the makeup of the student body: "Freischütz is a rarely performed opera that needs three basses. It's not often that a school has three fine basses at one time, as we do, so why not do an opera for them?" This serendipity will result in a treat for the public in December, as Freischütz is a catchy piece with some wonderful special effects. It was popular until the 1920s, then fell into obscurity. Weber's opera will be performed with full orchestra in the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center.

In the past two years AVA has staged a midwinter opera with only piano accompaniment. They've been dramas written for huge orchestras: Strauss's Elektra and Wagner's Das Rheingold. This season that slot goes to Eugene Onegin, where the pianist will be Ghenady Meirson, AVA's Russian coach. "Never forget that we're a training center. The accent shouldn't be on having a big orchestra and chorus," says Macatsoris.

As usual, Macatsoris will conduct most of AVA's performances but he has asked instructor Richard Raub to conduct The Barber of Seville, starting November 5. "Richard is very meticulous," says Macatsoris. "He knows how to crack the whip, in a very nice way, and he's particular about bowing and phrasing. Everyone loves working with him."

At age 70 — young for conductors — Macatsoris will work with a few of the Barber singers in addition to his normal conducting, teaching and coaching duties at the school. Thor Eckhert, well-known from Metropolitan Opera intermission features, has been added to the AVA faculty for career guidance.

A growing presence at 1920 Spruce is the Concert Operetta Theatre, founded in 2001 by AVA alumnus and director of special events Daniel Pantano. Operating independently but with the support of AVA's staff, the COT stages classic operettas, which have lighter music and more spoken dialogue than normal operas. It is the only performing arts group in the United States that has a full season dedicated to this genre. On October 14 and 15 the COT will produce the East Coast premiere of new lyrics and book for Lehar's The Merry Widow.

AVA in conjunction with COT will produce The Music of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy for St. Monica's Church in South Philadelphia October 21. (MacDonald and Eddy, both from Philly, were a romantic singing duo in films.) Then Pantano will stage a world premiere reading of Viennese Nights, originally a 1930 Warner Brothers movie with music by Sigmund Romberg and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. This will be followed by Romberg's The Student Prince and the East Coast premiere of The Cousin from Batavia (Das Vetter aus Dingsda) by Eduard Künneke in an English translation by Richard Traubner.

There's one more bold addition Macatsoris would like to make to the AVA repertoire, although he admits it's hardly a necessity for opera students: a cabaret series. It's a personal thing; early in his career he played lounge piano and accompanied Peggy Lee and other cabaret singers.

(s_cohen@citypaper.net)