British Youth Opera: Footlights Fannies not welcome

It’s the most sensitive moment in any classical singer’s career. You’ve spent up to eight years in training, coddled and monitored and subsidised within the warm embrace of a conservatoire, and suddenly you are on the verge of being flung out into the big wide world without experience or protection.

It’s cold out there, and a bit scary: people ask you to work for nothing or a pittance without proper preparation, and you have no means of showcasing your talent to its best advantage. You are horribly in debt and in dire peril of losing confidence and direction.

This is where British Youth Opera comes in. Established in 1987 by the late Labour MP Denis Coe, it’s in effect an annual summer school, entirely free to those taking part, aimed at any British-trained student on the verge of graduating (or post-graduating) into the business.

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Of course, the conservatoires have their own end-of-term shows, but they take place within the safety net of a pedagogic environment. BYO, on the other hand, is a tougher call: it offers a unique opportunity to participate in a fully staged opera, directed by a professional and produced to a high standard in a West End venue (currently the 1000 seater Peacock Theatre) in front of a paying audience, including casting agents and the press.

Behind the scenes the stage crew are trainees too, but the pit contains a professional orchestra and conductor, backed up by expert coaches. Six weeks of concentrated and gruelling rehearsal is followed by a week of performances - after which everyone concerned is just that much more strongly armed to face realities.

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Of over 400 singers who audition for BYO every year, only about a tenth can be admitted. “We could in theory take more,” explains BYO’s Director of Training, Stuart Barker, “but we prefer to work intensively with soloists rather than extensively with a huge chorus. If we increased the numbers, the benefits would be diluted.”

The aim of the operation is not to allow Footlights Fannies to grandstand with their favourite aria and garner applause for a top C, but to develop the deeper skill of working in an ensemble or team to bring opera theatrically alive. Repertory is often leftfield or beyond the mainstream: this year, for instance, Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen is featured alongside a double bill of rarely heard British chamber operas, Holst’s Savitri and Vaughan Williams’ Riders to the Sea.

The list of those who have passed though BYO on their way to fame and fortune is impressive - Lucy Crowe and Christopher Maltman being only two of the most celebrated – and Stuart Barker is particularly tickled that all four Bohemians in ENO’s recent run of La Bohème were BYO alumni. Has 2015 yielded a bumper crop? Only time will tell.

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Organisations like this flourish on a huge amount of good will and voluntary effort. BYO is fortunate to have the Prince of Wales as its Patron, a subvention from the Arts Council and a home at London South Bank University, but its finances are constantly on a knife-edge, sustained chiefly by the generosity of individuals who have realised its value. At the same time, its function is so specific that it tends to get squeezed or ignored by the major grant-giving trusts. This is regrettable: without the rung that BYO offers, the operatic ladder would be even harder to ascend than it already is.

BYO’s season is always a welcome oasis at a time of year when London is otherwise an operatic desert, and its performances always generate terrific warmth and enthusiasm. Is the name to blame for any empty seats? “British Youth Opera” sounds rather dreary and worthy, and given that the cast is almost entirely in their late 20s, perhaps it gives the wrong impression of hopeful amateurism. Can anyone think of a more alluring moniker?

The Cunning Little Vixen plays tomorrow and Savitri and Riders to the Sea on Saturday at the Peacock Theatre, WC2 (0844 871 0090)