Former Jette Parker Artists return to the Royal Opera House’s Main Stage for a retrospective marking twenty-five years of the young artists programme that trained them.
Former Jette Parker Artists return to the Main Stage of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden on Tuesday 20 and Wednesday 21 April 2027. The retrospective covers 25 years of the house’s young artists programme.
The Royal Opera House started its young artists company in September 2001 with six singers. Conductors, répétiteurs and pianists joined the following year, and stage directors the year after that.
In 2006 the programme took the name it still carries, after the donor whose foundation funds it. Its artists spend two years inside the company, coached by the people running it. They cover and perform real roles on the Main Stage and in the Linbury.
Many of today’s British opera principals passed through it as young artists. They covered roles before they were engaged to sing them, and came back to the house years later as leads.
The programme has since added observerships, short courses and commissions for people who would not otherwise reach an audition room at Covent Garden.
The former artists return with guests across the two nights. Each of them was once the least experienced person in the building.