Opera, MusicTheatre & Vocal - Music -British Council

Black Voices in Taipei. Photographer: Neil Webb.

	OPERA, MUSIC THEATRE & VOCAL

Opera and Music Theatre represent a particularly rich seam of cultural activity in Britain. The art form is notable for its diversity: large institutions (the Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, Glyndebourne) have been set up as platforms for national and international talent. Others (English National Opera, Opera North) take a more vernacular approach, performing in English and with an emphasis on contemporary production values. There is a plethora of high-quality, small-scale outfits looking at the repertoire afresh, with young casts and lively stagings.

Innovation is rife, and the Almeida Opera and the Genesis Opera Project are especially focused on nurturing new work. All this activity has a wider impact through committed education and community projects, a field which British opera has helped to pioneer. And Britain can be rightfully proud of its output of singers, directors and designers with international careers.

Ash Khandekar, Opera Now

Black Voices in the fourth Taipei International Choral Festival - credit Neil Webb

Music



		Broadcast and New Media


		Classical music


		Soul, hip hop and UK garage


		Electronic and club-based music


		Jazz


		Opera, Music Theatre & Vocal


		Alternative (Guitar-based)


		Roots


		Traditional and Folk Music


		Workshops and residencies

What does the British Council do in this area?

Due to the costs, size of companies and established touring networks, we are generally unable to engage with programming large-scale opera and music theatre unless we can attract substantial funding from external sources. Therefore we rarely tour large-scale work but are open to the possibilities. However, we do sometimes get involved with these larger organisations and ensembles to do educational projects. We have also worked with small ensembles such as Birmingham Touring Opera and Music Theatre Wales.

The UK is producing some diverse, innovative work in this field, both small- and large-scale and much new work is emerging from interesting UK composers, from Almeida Opera and from Battersea Arts Centre’s BAC Opera season.