User blog:BeccaSchmecca/Details about Prochaine star d'opéra 2001

Prochaine star d'opéra was a Canadian reality competition to find the next opera singing sensation aged 19 or older. The inaugural season, also known as Prochaine star d'opéra 2001, premiered on 12 January with a pre-show situated in New York City but officially began a week later after Canal de triomphe announced all twenty contestants.

Auditions
Open-casting auditions started shortly after Canadian Thanksgiving in 2000. The minimum age to audition was 19.

Final Cutdown
Out of each audition, a group of semi-finalists were selected. Producers and judges then evaluated each and ended up selecting 20 contestants, 10 of each gender.

The 20 selected contestants were:

Age was taken at the beginning of the contest (2001)

Quater-Finals

 * First Show (January 26, 2001)
 * All 20 contestants were paired into duets for this episode.
 * Natalia and Maika were threatened, much to the dismay of fans everywhere.
 * Alycia and Ryan were praised the best.


 * Second Show (February 2, 2001)


 * Natalia and Maika eached performed solo arias, while the other 18 contestants were paired into duets.
 * Ryan and Alycia were threatened.
 * Maika decided to eliminate herself.


 * Third Show (February 9, 2001)


 * Xavier and Maurice were chosen best of the night.
 * Ryan was chosen to leave the competition.
 * Alyica and Caleb were threatened.


 * Fourth Show (February 16, 2001)


 * Alycia was chosen to leave the competition.
 * Clémentine and Evelyne were threatened.
 * Pop star Saloni Bux and Ivorian tenor Kouassi Tresor served as special guests, singing "I'm Sorry", the English version of Bux's 2000 single "Désolé (Larmes tombent)".


 * Fifth Show (February 23, 2001)


 * Evelyne was chosen to leave the competition.
 * Lina, Lucas, and Ethan were all threatened.


 * Sixth Show (March 2, 2001)


 * Ethan and Lucas were chosen to leave the competition.
 * Caleb, Ghena, and Jade were all threatened.


 * Seventh Show (March 9, 2001)


 * Ghena and Caleb were chosen to leave the competition.
 * Isaac, Lina, and Megan were all threatened.


 * Eighth Show (March 16, 2001)


 * Megan and Isaac were chosen to leave the competition.
 * Natalia and Félix were threatened.

Semi-Finals

 * Ninth Show (March 23, 2001)


 * Natalia was chosen to leave the competition.
 * Jade and Paul were threatened.


 * Tenth Show (March 30, 2001)


 * Paul was chosen to leave the competition.
 * Maurice and Patricia were threatened.


 * Eleventh Show (April 6, 2001)


 * Maurice was chosen to leave the competition.
 * Milan and Félix were threatened.


 * Twelfth Show (April 13, 2001)


 * Milan decided to eliminate himself.
 * Lina and Clémentine were threatened.


 * Thirteenth Show (April 20, 2001)


 * Lina was chosen to leave the competition.
 * Patricia and Xavier were threatened.


 * Fourteenth Show (April 27, 2001)


 * Patricia was chosen to leave the competition.

Season Finale

 * Fifteenth Show (May 4, 2001)

Prochaine star d'opéra 2001 en tournée
In fall 2001, the contestants went on tour across French-speaking Canada to promote the season. Just like the contest format itself, all the contestants switched between a headset microphone without a pad and a double gooseneck microphone. The top 4 (Clémentine, Félix, Jade, and Xavier) continued the tour with stops in France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Japan, and South Korea. Each tour stop featured a locally-arranged orchestra of somewhere between 50 and 100 musicians.

Set list
In act one, each contestant performed an aria in the order for which they were eliminated. The tour showed the contestants singing 2-minute versions of the arias they sung in the order of elimination, much like the contest format.