Maestro, the popular celebrity knockout conducting competition series of 2008, is returning to BBC Two. This time, however, there's a new twist: the BBC has joined forces with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In Maestro at the Opera, over the course of 10 weeks and three one-hour programmes, a new line-up of celebrities will learn how to conduct an opera. They will be competing for the prize of conducting a complete act on the main stage of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with a cast of international young artists and the ROH Orchestra and Chorus.

Announcing the collaboration, the Royal Opera House's chief executive Tony Hall said, ‘What really excites us about this series is that we can communicate to as many people as we can the excitement and skill that goes towards communicating opera.’ To a certain extent, the Royal Opera House and the BBC are already doing this, for Maestro at the Opera is part of an ongoing collaboration between the two organisations. Recent broadcasts include Pappano's Essential Tosca and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and last year alone 17.2 million people watched opera via BBC television. However, the aim now is to cast the net wider, with Hall and the BBC's commissioning editor for music television, Jan Younghusband, emphasising their wish to bring a ‘broader audience to the heart of opera productions’.

Of course, a major factor in bringing in this hoped-for broader audience is the choice of celebrities, and the BBC's 2012 line-up is well thought out, if a little predictable. Perhaps because of the larger task ahead of them, the eight participants of 2008 have been reduced to just four. Furthermore, all of them already have musical ability. They've also evidently been chosen with an eye on what worked well last time. So, in place of 2008's DJ Goldie we now have DJ Trevor Nelson. Meanwhile, the comedian and eventual 2008 winner Sue Perkins has been mirrored by comic Josie Lawrence. But the personality whom the BBC no doubt hopes will draw in that entirely different set of viewers is the Strictly Come Dancing judge, Craig Revel Horwood. The final member of the quartet is maths supremo Professor Marcus du Sautoy. On paper, du Sautoy has a clear advantage as an amateur trumpeter and a lifelong opera fan. ‘If Jimmy Saville were still here, this would have been my Jim'll Fix It,’ he said at the press event. ‘Just the thought of making music again for me is just so exciting.’ On the other hand, there could be surprises. Apparently putting herself at the other end of the scale, Lawrence appeared to have difficulty remembering Antonio Pappano's name before quipping, ‘It sounds as though he should be a member of the Mafia!’ However, she also came across as the most assured of the four, making one wonder whether the comedian, who is also a talented singer, might be quietly aiming to set a precedent for funny females coming out on top.

The competitors will be judged by conductor Sir Mark Elder, soprano Danielle de Niese and orchestral musician Dominic Seldis. However, as with the original Maestro, the orchestra rather than the judges will have the final say as to which competitor or competitors go through each week.

Really though, the competition is the BBC's ‘accessible’ vehicle for exploring the role of an operatic conductor, and how an opera is actually put together, with the programmes providing backstage access and interviews with everyone from ROH coaches, crew and technicians through to music director Antonia Pappano and director of opera, Kasper Holten.

Charlotte Gardner

Maestro at the Opera airs from the end of April on BBC Two