What We Do
British Youth Opera was founded in 1987 to provide professional rehearsal and performance opportunities for emerging singers, musicians and technical trainees on the threshold of their careers.
Now regarded as one of the country's foremost opera training companies, it works to provide the very best professional development through an annual programme of workshops, masterclasses and fully-staged operas at Sadler's Wells' Peacock Theatre.
Summer Seasons
Starting in July, BYO’s Summer Season recreates the production process of a major professional opera company, leading to a week of performances in Sadler’s Wells’ Peacock Theatre in September.
BYO brings together professional artistic staff with a wealth of experience – and a particular gift for nurturing and developing emerging talent – to lead teams of trainee directors, conductors, repetiteurs, designers, stage and wardrobe staff in mounting the productions.
Singers receive music, vocal, dialogue, language, movement and fight coaching during the rehearsal period, and principals and understudies also take part in a unique ‘Link’ session with a distinguished singer who has performed their role in major opera houses.
Trainee directors and conductors take rehearsals with the understudy casts, trainee repetiteurs accompany all music and production rehearsals, and stage management trainees are given opportunities to attend talks and visits to theatres and opera houses.
Once in the Peacock Theatre, a full series of rehearsals takes place on stage, first with piano, then with orchestra, before open dress rehearsals and a week of performances (including shortened and adapted versions of the productions given by the understudies, led by the trainee directors and conductors).
Towards the end of the rehearsal process and for all the performances, the company works in association with Southbank Sinfonia, an orchestra with aims similar and complementary to BYO’s. The players benefit from the opportunity to work in a traditional operatic setting, and the singers benefit from the support of an orchestra of young professionals.
In addition to being the cornerstone of BYO’s training programme, Summer Season productions are also highly regarded by music critics, casting directors and agents, as valuable opportunities to view the very best young operatic talent.
Easter Workshops
Extremely popular with participants, BYO’s Easter Workshops give an opportunity for singers to explore and develop aspects of their technique such as character, the relationship between text and music, creativity and interpretation in an intimate, closed setting.
Three workshops take place simultaneously in facilities provided by BYO’s Principal Sponsor, London South Bank University, each involving twelve participants and led by experienced directors and coaches with backgrounds in opera, theatre and vocal training.
A professional and nurturing environment is central to BYO’s workshops, and without the pressure of performance they provide a unique and highly valued opportunity for singers.
Auditions
Each year between January and February, around 350 singers audition for BYO, most of whom are in full-time study at one of the UK's music colleges on graduate or postgraduate courses; those who aren't are generally either about to start or have recently finished their studies.
Led by the Artistic Director, the audition panel is formed from BYO's Artistic Committee and other experienced opera professionals who are particularly expert in the development of young singers. First round auditions are held in London, Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow and Birmingham before a second round is held in London.
From this extensive audition process, singers are selected for the BYO's Easter Workshops and Summer Season.
Other events
The BYO experience is not limited just to the Easter Workshops and Summer Season; throughout the year other events take place in which singers who have already worked with the company are invited to take part.
A series of masterclasses is held for recent BYO alumni. These sessions give participants an invaluable insight into character and interpretation and an opportunity to concentrate on individual skills, under the guidance of a distinguished expert from the profession and in front of an audience of BYO supporters.
Recent masterclasses have been held by Sir Thomas Allen, Maestro José Cura, Joan Rodgers, Philip Langridge, Sir John Tomlinson, Dame Josephine Barstow and Yvonne Kenny, as well as actor Timothy West and director Sir Jonathan Miller.
Over the last few years BYO has regularly taken part in the Anghiari Festival,Tuscany, where recent alumni have been invited to perform in a range of settings, from concert performances and semi-staged opera scenes to a fully-staged open-air production of L'elisir d'amore in 2008.
Small-scale concerts are held in London for friends, supporters and guests of BYO, and occasional performances for other organisations featuring BYO singers offer the opportunity for alumni from less recent seasons to work together.
Some of BYO's most distinguished alumni return for occasional gala events, highlighting the future success attained by many of the company's participants. Most recently Lucy Crowe, Katarina Karnéus, Peter Auty and Christopher Maltman - BYO participants from between 1990 and 2004 - took to the stage alongside alumni from the 2009 season in a fundraising gala at the Goldsmiths' Hall.
