For a young British opera singer to succeed today, it’s not enough to have an outstanding voice, natural musicianship and a commanding stage presence. It also requires a steely determination to cope with both the paucity of work at home and the bureaucratic nightmare abroad after Brexit.
Successive Tory governments presided over the decline of our leading opera companies, with huge cuts in funding at English National Opera, where seasons are shorter, productions recycled and the orchestra, chorus and music staff put on short-term contracts. And Glyndebourne and Welsh National Opera haven’t escaped the knife, forcing them to cease touring; so much for levelling up.
