Tell us about the Young Artists' Programme at the Royal Opera House.
The Young Artists' Programme started in 2001. The programme is for a maximum of ten singers. It is a two-year course, so we take on five singers each year. We also have a conductor, a repetiteur and a stage director. This year, in addition, we’ve had exceptionally a one-year Jette Parker Principal, who’d already been with us for two years. The additional year contains a great package of roles on the Main Stage.
The students do small roles on the Main Stage and they understudy larger roles. If they’re lucky, they get a chance to go on in those larger roles. We’ve already had an Alfredo who’s been on, and then went on to Frankfurt. We had a Suzuki on, quite a few Paminas and Taminos, a Donna Anna…
In 2001, we had funding for ten years by Alberto Vilar. There were problems there as the money ran out and now the Programme is funded by Jette Parker.
What happens to those who have left the Programme?
After they’ve left the Programme I do try and keep links with them. We have 14 ex-Young Artists back next season in the Main House and I’m very excited about that. If they’re doing a new role somewhere, I offer them to come back and learn it here, free of charge, with the language coaches and myself. I also try and get out to see them do new repertoire in other houses, just to follow their progress. It’s really nice when they keep coming back. It’s like a growing family.
You are also involved in other educational projects.
I also teach one day a week at the National Opera Studio. I do workshops at the colleges, I work with British Youth Opera, I’ve just been to the Young Artists' programme in Tokyo and I’m about to go with our Chinese tenor to Beijing to do ten days at the Central Academy there. In addition to that, I’m involved with the International Academy of Voice that Dennis O’Neil has set up. I like to see what’s going on everywhere.
Who can audition for your next Young Artists' Programme and how to apply?
Last year, 250 people from 49 countries applied for the five places. The application form is on the ROH website and it’s very clear. We obviously cannot hear 250 people, that would be crazy. David Syrus, Mark Packwood and I go through the applications and CDs or Minidiscs. The recordings don’t have to be professionally made. We read through the CVs and Letters of Reference. From the 250 we select about 70. They will come and do an audition for us. David Syrus, the Head of Music, will play for the auditions and Mark and I will be on the panel. Then we choose the maximum of 30 for Round Two. They will come and sing again to the three of us plus Elaine Padmore, Director of Opera, and Peter Catona, Head of Casting.
Then I will also do a one-on-one coaching session with those 30, just to get to know them and see what the potential is.
From that 30 we select a final 12 who get a chance to audition on the Main Stage. The five of us will be listening, joined by Tony Pappano the Music Director. I always find that it is then that the people who get through to Round Two show their nerves. But the final 12 can always say they have sung on the Main Stage of Covent Garden, even if they don’t get any further.
And it’s really then that you notice that certain people shine. We need to see whether they really rise to the occasion. You must know that when they get thrown on as understudies, they’re not going to be daunted by nerves.
It’s very exciting. It all takes place within a week. It’s a lot for them to take home, a lot of competition for five places.
Any second chances?
We do give them a second chance if we think are interesting and they are worth hearing again. Ultimately we’ve got to be sure that those people have what it takes to hold their own on stage.
And what does it take?
I don’t know, it’s a certain coolness… I think it’s also an awareness of what’s going on around you. How your part, even if it's one line, fits into the bigger picture. I always insist that the singers translate the whole opera, not just their part. Because if they are a smaller character in a big scene, they have to come running on and they have to fit into the whole story and into that energy. Every time somebody comes on, it shifts the focus of the drama. You have to be aware of that. I always urge them to follow the other rehearsals just to see how it all fits in.
I have a Canadian bass on the Programme, Robert Gleadow, who was playing the Doctor in Act Five of Pelléas et Mélisande. It's a very strange opera and a very interesting production. He really couldn’t find anything to build his character on, until he sat through the whole five acts of rehearsals. Then he realised how by the time you got to his entry in Act Five everything made sense.
I insist they translate the whole opera and they do background reading. It’s good to go to art galleries and see the pictures of the period and observe body language in paintings. It all opens imagination.
Are the applicants supposed to be already established artists?
Hopefully they are not just straight out of colleges. They need to have stagecraft. Of course, we do teach stagecraft and movement, but when the time is limited and you’re only doing a small part, then the focus is going to be on building the character. You’ve got to do a lot of it yourself. They have to have a certain awareness of stagecraft. Therefore, having had a two year’s experience or so in, say, the Glyndebourne chorus or small roles in some of the smaller companies is essential.
How long is your year on the Programme?
We start in September and our final concert is mid-July. When some of the operas start earlier, for example Iphigenie en Tauride next season, my two singers start already in August.
What is the structure of the course?
We try not to make it a course for ten people, but ten individual courses. We’re not looking for people to fit into a structure. We don’t have to get two sopranos, two tenors, and so on. We just take people with the most talent who would benefit most from the two years, at the same time maintaining the balance of the availability of roles in the Main House. That’s where they learn their craft. There is no point having ten of the same voice who are going to be fighting over two roles. It’s just not practical.
What does a typical week look like?
A typical week would be per day: a couple of hours of music coaching, with myself or other members of the music staff at the Opera House or the pool of about 60 freelance people we have; then language coaching either on the roles they are preparing and understudying or Lieder recitals. Twice a week they have Movement, once a week Stagecraft. We also have a link with the Jubilee Hall Gym here, where the singers have personal training sessions. This is tied up with our movement coach and our occupational health people. Singers have to be strong and fit to be on stage.
Sometimes they have interviews. At the moment they have ensemble calls for the Summer Concert. We’re lucky here that we can invite all the singers, directors, conductors who come through the House to come and work with them. It’s very exciting.
How long is a typical day?
A typical day starts at 10.30am and finishes at 5.30pm, with an hour off 1.30 -2.30. With a Main Stage production the hours are slightly different because of the costumes and we try to stagger them so the singers get a decent break. We tend not to work at weekends, but of course the Main House does. We just keep an eye on it, so they get a day off in lieu. There are some evening rehearsals on the Main Stage, but then we try to free them up in the morning.
Interesting challenges?
At the moment, we have a Russian soprano, a Polish bass-baritone, a Lithuanian, a Chinese, a Korean, an American, a South-African, people from all over the world. Some students don’t speak English very well, so we have spoken English with them two or three times a week. It is essential for them to be able to understand instructions and directions. There are also cultural differences, for example some nations consider expressing their emotions a sign of weakness. We are trying to meet them halfway, without them feeling threatened or compromised. It is fascinating to have people from all corners of the world singing an ensemble together. I think it just enriches everybody who is involved in that.
What do you do when there is not enough talent in your auditions? They say real talent is born once in a generation…
Absolutely. We take on UP TO five people. There was one year we took three, not to compromise the level. There were two conductors who applied, both very interesting. So, I thought, as we had three singers, maybe we could take both of them on. I like to keep that flexibility.
What do you do with heavy voices that normally mature around the age of 35?
We had quite a few heldentenors and dramatic sopranos. These voices take longer to develop. For a light soprano or a light tenor you can always find a small part in an opera, but for those bigger voices there aren’t always small parts. Yet, you can’t throw them on in the big parts, especially at Covent Garden. So how do they make a living? The good thing here is that they are paid, they are salaried. They can be here for two years, understudy the roles and learn them as their repertoire. They don’t have to work as waiters, they are paid by us and they are still developing their voices and getting all the experience, so that hopefully in two years they can go off to Germany and maybe in smaller houses build up that repertoire and experience and then come back on the international circuit. Sometimes we might have a few of those voices and I love investing in them. I think it’s our duty to look after the bigger voices and treat it as an investment.
I am surprised you work on Lieder at the Opera House.
It’s very important from all points of view. There is the communication with the audience. The singer is not being a character, dressed in a costume, with the distance of the pit, with lights, so they can’t see the audience. I think you have to be very brave to stand there as yourself and sing. You are also focused in terms of language, vocal development, imagination, all of it in a three-minute song instead of a small part in a three-hour opera.
I don’t know any opera singers who only do opera. They do concerts and recitals as well. I think the work on the opera stage helps the recital performances in terms of imagination and colour – and it works the other way round. The sense of intimacy and the use of the text that you do in recitals enhances the opera performance. I think Lieder are a vital part of opera singers’ development. They are great for the vocal health, as well.
A lot of the bigger names from opera do recitals, Fleming, Florez, von Otter, Keenlyside... If you can’t get to see them on stage in an opera, tickets are cheaper and you get a whole evening of them to yourself in a recital; you get to see them up close as them, which can often be more interesting than seeing them on stage.
There is a lot to learn here for a young singer: you can learn to project what you want to project but still keep your private self behind that – as your defence if you are attacked by a critic or a public that boos you. It can destroy you if you give it all as you. All of us have a different ‘professional you’ and a ’private you’. The you from the weekend with your family in the garden is very different from the you that you present at work. It think it must be very hard to deal with the situation when everyone wants a piece of you, getting too close, wanting to own you...
...and only for a little while. If you watch those Idols, Factors and other talent contests, people are very interested in the star, but only for a moment...
...and there’s on to another one. Yes! That’s what I try to tell my guys. Take what you do very seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously. Always know that you are very fortunate to be on the Programme, but that’s where the work starts. Whoever you are, however great you are, however important, however famous. It gets worse when you’re famous. There are a hundred people in the wings that are younger, hungrier, cheaper. You do have your five minutes, but don’t take yourself seriously.
Keep your individuality. I don’t want a perfect product who has perfect technique and can do everything. I want to see (pause) something that singles you out, even something flawed. It’s keeping what’s unique and building on that, so that they remember YOU, not how you acted, not the voice, but you as you.
Over the two years I try to build up who the singers are, how they present themselves, what they want to present of themselves when they hit the big market. They work really hard and I’m very proud of them.
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What are you going to present in the Summer Concert?
The Young Artists come from all over the world, so this year we’re doing a trip around the world. We are starting with the overture from The Barber of Seville, then we’re doing an excerpt from Turco in Italia, the letter scene from Werther, a duet from Serail, the quartet from I due foscari, an excerpt from Billy Budd, the cherry duet from L’amico Fritz, a scene from Pelléas et Mélisande and final trio from Lakmé. It’s a mixture of English, French, Italian, German… There’s something for everyone. It is cohesive. I stretch my singers but not ridiculously so. All these roles they will possibly sing in the future. It’s just to indicate where I think they might go.
It’s slightly off-beat. I try to avoid giving the audience what they want. I could easily do a Boheme or a Traviata, but it’s not interesting. There are so many other people who would do it better. A staged concert is a good form. It can be used dramatically as well as musically. Stephen Barlow will be conducting the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. He’s been with us for a long time. Andrew Griffith is our trainee conductor. It will be on the Main Stage.
Do you think the future of opera is in big opera houses?
I’m not sure. It has become apparent, I think, that there is definitely a place for the smaller opera companies to do more contemporary music, Baroque, smaller venues, touring, exciting direction, exciting singing and acting. There seem to be more and more of them. They aren’t just small companies who haven’t got a lot of money. They are equally valid. The Linbury Studio, the British Youth Opera, Grange Park, Holland Park, Garsington, Glyndebourne… It seems to be more and more on a very high level.
In terms of budgets of big houses, I think people expect more. People expect special effects like in films, singers like Brad Pitt… They are right when you think how expensive the tickets are. I think the way around it is co-productions, where three of four opera houses chip in, the production is shown in all the houses and they all get the benefit. And then, of course, more revivals. It can be exciting - a revival doesn’t mean a lesser product. A change of cast, a change of conductor. The Faust we had was different the second time, same about Tosca. It gives an opportunity for a new energy. The energy of the piece isn’t set in stone. It’s live theatre.
What is the prevailing trend in opera at the moment?
I think we’ve sort of come full circle: we’ve gone away from the opera of 1950s and 1960s (stand-and-sing; the fat lady); then the director was throwing his crazy concepts, sometimes to the detriment to the music (let’s-cut-the-music-it-doesn’t-fit-my-concept), now we have very intelligent conductors and very musical directors who respect the music. The music has become important again. What’s expected from singers has evolved. I think we’ve now come full circle and we’ve taken the best of all of that. The music isn’t of secondary importance, it isn’t just the backing. Of course, as a musician, I am delighted!
The first opera I ever worked on was Cappricio, down in Glyndebourne. The whole subject of that is whether the musical world is more important. Being a linguist, the beauty of opera for me was to use the languages, but also use the music to keep the text alive. Who came first, the librettist or the composer? What is our function there? I think opera has now achieved the balance of keeping the music alive through the words.
How did your interest in opera begin? Were you two-and-a-half when someone took you to the opera house?
(laughing) No, I wasn’t. I started playing the piano when I was four. My mother was a music teacher. I wanted to start when I was three, but I was really too small, and my Mum said, "if you still want it when you're four, you could have piano lessons then." So for my fourth birthday I didn’t want any presents – I wanted my piano lessons. And I carried on. Then I picked up the clarinet, the organ, guitar, did one year of violin, and went to the Royal College of Music as a clarinettist. But I changed that and started doing accompaniment. My teacher had been a repetiteur at the ROH. If I hadn’t done music, I was going to do languages. I’m bilingual French, I have German, Italian, Spanish as well. My teacher suggested a career in opera. I didn’t know that existed! I could use all my knowledge of clarinet, violin, orchestral awareness, continuo from the harpsichord, organ, languages, play the piano, coach singers…
What was your first opera?
It was Macbeth at the Scottish Opera, with Pauline Tinsley as Lady Macbeth. I will never forget that. I was 10 or 12. Then Maria Callas died, and the whole story with Onassis was very appealing. Then I listened to Maria Callas and thought it was incredible. So I started going to more and more operas, coaching more and more singers. I applied to the National Opera Studio at the age of 22. I knew nothing, but I’m a quick learner. Then I went to Wexford, Glyndebourne, Amsterdam, Geneva. I was only 25 to become the Head of Music in Geneva, which was silly as I was still learning. I was working with wonderful singers and conductors. It was a sink-or-swim situation and I was hungry for it.
I stayed in Geneva seven seasons, then freelanced, worked in Paris, Aix-en-Provence, assisted Jeffrey Tate on the first Ring in Australia. Then I let David Syrus and Elaine Padmore know that I was coming back to Britain, essentially to get married in 1998. I remember a conversation about starting The Young Artists Programme. I thought it was a great idea. They asked me to be involved in it. Wow, it was my dream. I’d done a lot of work abroad and was really fed up with the hotel circuit, the suitcases, not belonging anywhere. I thought it was great. I was young enough to be still learning and to pass on what I’d learnt. I met Tony Pappano. Tony and Elaine offered me the job. We set about looking for singers and an administrator. I love it. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do.
I think I was lucky starting young. I was thrown in at the deep end. There were certain things I learned the hard way. I like to encourage conductors and repetiteurs to find it for themselves. I offer them advice but I don’t want to mollycoddle them because I don’t think it does them any favours. Same with the singers. I think what we try to do here is let them make their own mistakes. That’s how you learn. But in a safe environment, with a safety net underneath.
You have worked in many European countries. What are the differences?
I still feel that the level of preparation, of musicianship, of languages, of communication is much greater here. We have a better schooling here. We care more, I think.
In Italy, I’m often appalled with the way Italians sing the Mozart recitative. They just don’t care about it. I can understand that: we work very hard on the communication, the pronunciation and the delivery of it because it’s not our language. People who are working in their own language don’t make that same effort.
The whole idea of the role of the conductor is very different around Europe, in Italy for example. The role of the director in Germany is much stronger. The right of the singer to speak up against that is different. There’s a lot of hierarchy in many European countries that is possibly not healthy.
The level of preparation in German repertoire houses is different. They can throw a performance of La Boheme on without a rehearsal or any stage time, often inviting guests who haven’t done the production before, just talk them through for three hours and throw them on. To me, that’s not making opera. That’s not art. I think it can be very exciting sometimes and the adrenaline is what gets people through, but it’s a very special sort of person who can deal with that.
The nature of the repetiteur differs, whether they are a coach or just a rehearsal pianist, whether they’re actually a prompter, whether they’re doing surtitles… Also the stage staff can have a different role. The stage management and assistant directors can often be very different jobs or the same job; they’re often the same people who do the props. Sometimes there is no one in charge of make-up and you’re expected to do your own.
Most of my work in Europe has been festivals and it has been very nice. Festivals have a different energy, they are a party, everyone works hard, everyone is there for the event.
I think we are lucky here, very lucky. We’re not typically British, especially in this building. I think it’s cosmopolitan enough. For my programme, this is the best place there is. The level of care here is different. I don’t think we take that for granted.
Professionals don’t like talking about their favourite composers or operas. The one they work on is their favourite…
…yes, that’s true.
But I would like to know.
Pelléas et Mélisande is one of my all time favourites. I’ve had wonderful experience working on that piece. I loved it here as well. I find the piece very special.
Well, I’ve got really cheap taste. Sorry. I know that’s not what I am expected to say. I should say The Ring!
But I think my all time favourite would be Manon Lescaut. I’m a real tart when it comes to musical taste, I’m afraid. Puccini. I heard Manon Lescaut recording with Callas and it killed me. It killed me. There’s something in it. I love the whole story by the Abbé Prévost, the Massenet Manon. It was written in 1731 and it’s still fantastic. I love that whole subject, more than I do the Traviata story. I love what Puccini did with it.
What is it about Puccini that attracts you?
You can be easily seduced by the music in Puccini. He wrote wonderful melodies.
The danger of singing it, I think, is that you sing along to it like karaoke. But actually, you have to work harder, you have to work against that melody to keep your character and your situation alive, because we remember the tunes, but we don’t remember what they were saying or how it came to that.
And there’s something tragic about Puccini’s life, falling in love with a maid. It’s like a Mills & Boon romance. I think with the right people, right director, right conductor, right artists, Puccini can be very exciting.
Who would be in your ideal cast for Manon Lescaut?
Callas. I love her with Di Stefano, but in my cast it would be Marcelo Alvarez. I know he hasn’t done it yet, but it would be him. I loved him here in Rigoletto, his enthusiasm, his passion. He just loves it. He was so fantastic as the Duke. He’s worked with our guys quite a lot. His energy, the way he uses the text! He never fakes it: it’s all worked out but it all comes from his gut.
Maria Callas changed the face of opera, without her we wouldn’t be doing what we are doing now as a piece of theatre. She did it to the detriment of the beauty of her voice. If someone is prepared to make a very ugly sound because it’s appropriate to the drama, they get my vote. It was the most expressive voice. Every cadenza , every word meant something. Taking it as a model, not copying it but making it work for you, challenging yourself, is worth while.
My conductor would have to be... it would have to be Tony, wouldn’t it? I think Pappano would do a very good job. Where would I put it on? That’s a good point... It would have to be in this house, so I can see it a lot. And I could get the covers…
What would you change in the world of opera?
I wouldn't change anything as such but would hope that opera can follow the journey it is currently taking, incorporating new ideas but not at the sake of the music, and therefore maintain a position relevant to current society and culture. With more and more emphasis being placed on production and singers as actors, the music had got lost. But now with a resurgence of conductors and "musical" directors and singers who are fantastic musicians and linguists, more care thankfully is being addressed to a discovery or a quest for what composers intended.
Now we seem to be incorporating innovation of concept without compromising music. This I hope will be the legacy of this and future generations, respecting the music of yesteryear and maintaining its validity in the 21st century and beyond.
What are your other passions outside opera?
My kids. I have three boys, 11, 7 and 5. I love having the weekends with them. That’s my chill-out time. It allows me to get down. I’m separated now from my wife, but I see them at weekends. It's great, all of us boys together doing daft things.
I like cooking, eating, reading. The first thing I try to do when I’m working away is to visit art galleries and museums. I find it a good idea to get myself lost in the back streets of the town I visit – though it wasn't such a good idea in Tokyo. I don't speak Japanese.
VIEW David Gowland’s page HERE.
VIEW the Young Artists' Summer Concert
HERE
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