Down a side-alley in Wandsworth, south London, a line of expectant people queue up outside a converted chapel building. It’s a Wednesday lunchtime and the National Opera Studio’s ‘Wandsworth Wednesday’ concert is about to begin. Two recitals sit side-by-side, taking the audience through classic arias followed by transportive Lieder and iconic contemporary repertoire.

The Wandsworth chapel building is home to the National Opera Studio [NOS] – an organisation established in 1977 by the Arts Council as a link between the music colleges and the six main UK opera companies. Today, it takes on up to 12 young singers and four repetiteurs for nine months of rigorous training, five days a week, preparing them for life on an international operatic stage.

It certainly boasts a collection of illustrious alumns, from Susan Bullock to Nicky Spence, Alice Coote and Gerald Finley. Still, NOS isn’t an organisation stuck in the past, but one determined to react to the needs of a contemporary opera world. A world increasingly suffering due to arts cuts, poor artist health and declining opportunities. For the joint directors, Nicholas Simpson and Eric Melear, the future appears to be feeling bright. ‘It feels particularly exciting. We’re on the same page and have a vision. Whether we can get there is another matter, but we have vision, and that’s what matters.’

Following former Chief Executive Emily Gottlieb’s move to Longborough Festival Opera last year, the Studio made the decision to move into a joint leadership structure, with Simpson as Executive Director and Melear as Artistic Director. It’s a move the pair say has a great deal of synergy and they speak to me just days following the announcement of the new National Opera Studio Academy for artists aged 19-25.

The new Academy initiative, Melear tells me, ‘is how we can most readily reach the people who need some information about what the career is ... What kinds of professional training do they need to strive for? What are the demands of the career that they may not know yet? It might make them more excited, or make them run away from it – which is valid too!’

If the young people find the career to spark inspiration, they may choose to apply to NOS for its main artist programme, which during the nine months, sees the Studio collaborate with the six full-time UK opera companies to offer residencies, opera scenes showcases and masterclasses.The The Wandsworth studio comes with state-art recording facilities, practice rooms and a performance space that can be used by the artists at their leisure. There are also added benefits for alumni, who can continue to access recordings and coachings where available.

I speak to a current artist, mezzo-soprano Nancy Holt, just two months into her time at NOS. ‘Externally, when you’re not in a programme like this, making recordings is a nightmare. I already have more recordings of myself singing than I’ve ever had.’ Singers rely on recordings for applying and auditioning for various schemes. Making an immediate impression requires the type of recording quality that is hard to find.

I ask Holt about dealing with the intensity of a programme like the one at NOS. She says the building of stamina is important. ‘We sing so much throughout the week. Your voice gets much stronger. I don’t get to the end of the week as vocally tired as I’d expected. That’s the truth of the industry as well. If you go and work in the fest system in Germany, you will be singing all the time like this.’

In the UK, NOS is a step from the many masters singing degrees and opera schools that the conservatoires offer. The provision NOS offers tends to be much more specific to the individual, which is difficult to find in conseravtoire. ‘Master’s year groups at conservatoires are really often really large and it’s sad,’ Holt tells me.

‘If you did a standard degree and not a performance degree, you go into a master’s a little bit behind. If you don’t catch up in those two years of a masters, you’re stuck. Even just the people in the room of one master’s degree, there’s not enough work for them.’

Simpson suggests that the artist-led structure that NOS offers may help to lessen the blow of the transition for young singers out of education: ‘We talk a lot with them about the idea of artist-led training. Very often you can come out of an academic institution having been given a lot of information, but the transition to a true professional life where you’re on the road, alone, and you have to determine your own coaching schedule is hard.’

Horror stories have circulated in recent years with regards to abuses of power in the opera industry and the prevalence of poor artist mental health. One element to the training that all mentioned to me was the impact of working with an elite high-performance coach, Clíodhna O’Connor – Head of Athletic Performance for the Irish Senior Women’s Hockey team. ‘It’s been so interesting talking to her,’ Simpson says. ‘She’ll say, “in hockey, we have research saying that if you go hard on one day, then you have to take a break”and she gives the science behind it. We don’t have that in the performing arts.’

The demands of performance in sport and opera have many similarities, something that O’Connor is able to hone in to.

Holt says of working with O’Connor, ‘She says you can’t always do a PB [personal best], but she’s taught me that if you get a little bit below your your PB, then that’s great too. You need to increase your bottom level so that even if it’s not your best day, you’re still good enough.’

Ideas like performance coaching are, Melear thinks, part of the experimentation at NOS and something they may be able to pass on to others. ‘If we have “national” in our name, how do we approach the the responsibility of training in this company, or in this country,’ he asks. ‘Can we reflect what’s out there and act as a resource for the things that are going on? Being a source of information so that we’re connecting with singers at a younger age and they know where to go when they need certain resources.’

The lunchtime concert ends and the Young Artists are surrounded by audience members, many of whom they appear to know by name. The leaders of NOS tell me this devoted core audience are their donors who attend as many of the artists’ performances as they possibly can.

‘I think they feel the warm atmosphere coming out from NOS and from the young artists – they genuinely want to follow them on their career paths,’ Simpson explains.

And the future? ‘I hope that we can empower our artists with understanding what their needs are, what they do really well, what they need help with and when to ask for that help or when to assert themselves.’ ON

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of Opera Now. Never miss an issue – subscribe today