'Our aim is to offer a nurturing environment, building on the skills, experience and requirements of our young singers, so that they leave fully prepared to meet the demands of the profession.'
RCM Opera Studio
The Royal College of Music Opera Studio is one of the leading advanced training courses in the world. It offers operatic training at the highest level for performers from around the globe. Many of the world’s leading singers have passed through our doors.
As part of an elite and carefully constituted group of exceptionally talented young singers, each student will benefit from rigorous training, sensitive to their individual needs and responsive to the demands of the profession. Our students work regularly with a team of coaches, musicians and theatre professionals drawn from the senior ranks of the country’s leading opera companies, and perform in acclaimed productions in the first-class Britten Theatre.
Replicating professional conditions is the hallmark of the RCM’s approach to operatic training, in order to ensure a seamless transition into the world of work. There are three RCMOS opera productions each year and two sets of fully staged opera scenes in the Britten Theatre. You will have the benefit of rehearsing and performing with highly experienced, influential industry professionals, who occupy key posts at the great opera houses of Europe and beyond.
Maxwell-Davies's The Lighthouse (2018) directed by Stephen Unwin
Humperdink's Hänsel und Gretel (2016) directed by Liam Steel
Crime and Punishment (2016) in collaboration with Tête à Tête
Backstage in the RCM International Opera School
Offenbach's Robinson Crusoe (2019) directed by Bill Bankes-Jones
J Strauss' Die Fledermaus (2015) directed by John Copley
Handel's Ariodante (2015) in collaboration with the London Handel Festival
Huw Watkins' In the Locked Room (2018) directed by Stephen Unwin
Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro (2018) directed by Sir Thomas Allen
In addition to receiving regular core training you will gain unique artistic and professional insights through mentorship by internationally renowned artists including Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, David Pountney and Alessandro Corbelli. You will work with performance psychologists, key industry leaders and the Centre for Performance Science to assist you in taking full responsibility for the development of your professional career.
The RCM’s annual programme of events includes a popular Opera Scenes series, providing singers with additional opportunity to work with professional directors in the production of semi-staged scenes accompanied by piano.
Every year the RCM Opera Studio presents a number of innovative projects, including a regular collaboration with production company Tête-a-Tête and acclaimed director Bill Bankes-Jones, in which mini operas by RCM students are premiered.
Mozart, Marriage of Figaro
Enjoy a full performance by the RCM Opera Studio of one of Mozart's best loved operas, directed by esteemed alumnus Sir Thomas Allen
Recent productions
Trouble in Tahiti & A Dinner Engagement (Summer 2019)
Michael Rosewell conductor
Stephen Unwin director
Nicky Shaw designer
Ralph Stockeld lighting designer
In Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, we lift the curtain on the American dream and 1950s suburbia with a seven-scene sneak peak into the marriage of brash capitalist Sam and his frustrated housewife, Dinah. Meanwhile, in Berkley's A Dinner Engagement, Lord and Lady Dunmow have fallen on hard times, struggling to keep up appearances for some important dinner guests.
This double-bill production was made possible with the assistance of the Basil Coleman Bequest.
'With unbridled professionalism, the performances of students at the hands of well-known theatre director Stephen Unwin upstage a great number of interpretations across the international opera stage.'
'The production tells us this stark tale in an abrupt and artful manner throughout taking into its reality in a dramatic and unique way. A significant accolade is deserved here for this achievement.'
Robinson Crusoe (Spring 2019)
Michael Rosewell conductor
Bill Bankes-Jones director
Sarah Jones designer
A sparkling cast of RCM singers took audiences on a tuneful treasure hunt filled with swashbuckling sea songs and maritime melodies, as the RCM Opera Studio marked the 200th birthday of Jacques Offenbach with a performance of his immensely fun operetta, Robinson Crusoe.
'A delicious evening which showed off its young talent to best advantage and made us want more Offenbach.'
★★★★
'The music, as Michael Rosewell's eminently theatrical conducting made clear is often delectably crafted, and the sophisticated ensembles would not be out of place in Les Contes d'Hoffman.'
Le nozze di Figaro (August 2018)
Sir Thomas Allen director
Michael Rosewell conductor
Lottie Higlett designer
Rory Beaton lighting designer
Esteemed baritone and RCM alumnus Sir Thomas Allen returned to direct a rousing performance of Mozart's much-loved comic opea, The Marriage of Figaro. Composed in 1786, it has all the ingredients of a modern rom com – love, revenge and deception – as courtship turns to chaos.
'The young performers bring enormous energy and talent to the production. As an RCM alumnus I am pleased to see the College's operatic training provision going from strength to strength.'
'Everyone knows exactly what they are doing, their acting has that ring of confident spontaneity, and the wedding-dance sequence is a brilliantly choreographed and executed pleasure.'
'The cast worked incredibly hard, to good effect, and the drama grew in charm and shine. Tradition proved a real treat.'
'A most elegant production by Thomas Allen. It is no doubt a distillation of his experiences and he will certainly have provided great inspiration to the young singers.'
★★★★★
Past productions
The Lighthouse & In the Locked Room (Summer 2018)
Stephen Unwin director
Michael Rosewell conductor
Hannah Wolfe designer
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Spring 2018)
Liam Steel director
Michael Rosewell conductor
Michael Pavelka designer
Andy Purves lighting designer
The Cunning Little Vixen (Autumn 2017)
Daniel Slater director
Michael Rosewell conductor
Alex Berry designer
Hannah Wolfe costume designer
Une éducation manquée & Les mamelles de Tirésias (Summer 2017)
Stephen Unwin director
Michael Rosewell conductor
Neil Warmington designer
Ben Ormerod lighting designer
Royal College of Music
Prince Consort Road
London SW7 2BS
United Kingdom
