Experiment: Put 17 teenagers together under one roof. Take away their cell phones and send them to their rooms at 10 p.m., lights out at 11. Sketch out a detailed daily itinerary that includes intense workouts, short breaks for meals and absolutely no beach time.

What might they do? Throw temper tantrums? Band together and stage a full-scale revolt?

In this case, they sing. Arias.

This is OperaFest, a two-week, summer camp-like program for some of the youngest and most dedicated opera enthusiasts in the country.

“It’s full-contact opera,” said program executive producer David Kline. “It’s an unnatural act. It’s not like anything we ever do in real life.”

“The goal of this whole festival was to put them in what we call an intensive professional experience,” said director Maggie L. Harrer.

The two were seated with OperaFest founder and artistic director Claudette Peterson in a vacant studio space in the basement of the Vineyard Arts Project building on Upper Main street in Edgartown this week. That’s where the kids have been eating, sleeping and rehearsing, without the luxury of communication via cell phone, for the two weeks leading up to tonight’s conclusive performance at the Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs.

“It’s been a wonderful place to do this. It’s a wonderful facility,” said Mr. Kline. The Island in general has proven for the past two years to be the perfect place to hold such a unique program, he said. “That’s the whole thing about the Vineyard; it’s extremely aware with arts, and they’re wonderful people.”

OperaFest began six years ago, after Ms. Peterson, a former leading soprano in the New York City Opera, searched high and low for a program to accommodate a young student with very little experience but a great deal of talent. She found none. But an old colleague invited her to start the program herself, as part of a festival in Tolentino, Italy, run by the Vaccai Institute. And so she did.

Three years later, as the strength of the dollar dropped and annual travel to and from Italy became prohibitive, Ms. Peterson transplanted OperaFest to the Vineyard. It became one of the only such programs in the country for kids that fall between the ages of 15 and 19 years old. “That’s where we’re unique, we focus on high school-age and early college-age kids. Nobody does that,” said Mr. Kline.

The program’s approach to teaching is multifaceted and hands-on. “The way I look at it is that you teach people how to do the art,” said Ms. Peterson. “The only way you can learn is by doing it. I talk about that all the time. The only way to practice performing is by performing.”

And while performing is certainly a big part of the plan here, it’s not all the kids do for their two weeks on the Island. Different members of the faculty take on different aspects of the students’ full education. Ms. Harrer, a television and theatre director and producer, focuses on helping the students to polish their acting skills. Mr. Kline, a veteran bass baritone opera singer, tackles the breathing.

“It’s like blowing out a hundred candles,” said Ms. Peterson, of the amount of air the young singers need in their lungs to hit many of the notes.

Mr. Kline compared it to snorkeling. “That takes as much air as a big, snorkeling breath. You’re underwater for 10, 15 seconds. You don’t get a chance to breathe in the middle,” he said. Most of the students involved in the program were used to using microphones during live performances. Not so with opera. “You have to acoustically project,” he said. “It’s like an electric guitar. It sounds great when you plug it in but when the cord comes out and there’s no amp...it doesn’t sound like anything.”

But in this case, the performers aren’t musicians playing an instrument. “We are an instrument. We play our throat,” said Mr. Kline. “That’s what we as musicians do. So it’s learning how to play that acoustic instrument, rather than electric microphone instrument.”

Other physical training also plays a large role in opera as well. Week number one calls for regular lessons in Pilates, while week two calls for yoga classes. “The Pilates is for core strength,” said Ms. Harrer. “As David said, this is a full-contact sport. They have to be very strong at their centers, and they have to be able to breathe. Pilates is all about breathing and core strength.”

The yoga is a little less intense. “Yoga is also about breathing, but it’s also about a different kind of strength. A more fluid, flexible strength,” said Ms. Harrer.

But together, the exercises help the students more fully tap into their singing talent. “We get them to think about using the core of their body and getting that very strong,” said Ms. Harrer. “So you stand and move with grace and strength and you breathe while you’re doing it, which is what you have to do while you sing, and then yoga gives them the more flexible, meditative kind of strength, all of which are important.”

This year, the 17 students are mostly drawn from New Jersey and North Carolina. And though Island students participated in the program’s first two years on the Vineyard, there are none participating this year. But faculty members do offer a master class at the regional high school, and a significantly discounted program cost for all Islanders.

The three OperaFest faculty members say that most of the program participants are serious about musical performance, and many will pursue professional careers in the field. One of the best things about the program is that it prepares kids for those daunting auditions. “A lot of people tell us that when they go to their college auditions, people are stunned, because here’s someone who has a full blown aria. They know how to do it on a very high level,” said Ms. Harrer.

The program gives them the time and focus to perfect those skills. “At home they’ve got school, they’ve got homework, they’ve got activities, they’ve got SAT tests that they’re working towards,” said Ms. Peterson. “They’re so scattered, the poor things, that it’s hard.” But at OperaFest, singing takes center stage. “That’s all they do,” she said.

The OperaFest students will stage pieces from a variety of operas at their performance of Summer Passions, held tonight at 8 p.m. at Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs.