The Opera School is led by Head of Opera, Philip White. The school is also supported by Professor Stephen Robertson, a vocal pedagogue, and Opera lecturers Mark Hathaway and Duncan Williams.
The RCS Opera and Vocal Performance Departments are made up of experienced and distinguished teachers and practitioners, and a wide range of visiting coaches, conductors, directors and guest artists provide a constant source of external stimuli.
Please note, the MMus Opera programme is not taking applications for entry in September 2024. From 2025, we are launching a brand new one-year Artist Diploma in partnership with Scottish Opera, the full details of which are subject to validation.
More information will be available on this page in due course. In the meantime, you can read our press release about the new Artist Diploma for further details of this unique new programme.
Please note, this programme structure is only applicable to students already studying MMus Opera at RCS, which is not taking new applications. The structure of our new Artist Diploma, beginning in 2025, is subject to validation and will be available soon.
The RCS Opera Course was recently restructured to acknowledge the ever-increasing expectation from the industry that opera singers be acting singers and singing actors. Above all, it seeks to recognise that Opera is 50% singing and 50% acting. We aim to set out a well-defined pathway for our students with clear goals along the route. It does not mark the end of years of vocal training, rather it opens the door to a whole new world that is now accessible to those who can meet its demands.
The first year is dedicated to acquiring and improving on a basic skill set, creating a safe environment to encourage self-expression, consolidating vocal technique and honing the craft of auditioning. The second allows students to participate in at least two of three annual opera productions. These are placed in terms one and two allowing graduating students to easily participate in any summer festival productions in term 3.
Much of the training is catered to the individual. In addition to weekly vocal lessons and coachings, we also provide individual language tutors in Italian, French and German repertoire (Russian and Czech can also be accommodated). In year 1 there are weekly acting classes throughout the year which organically evolve into production rehearsals, also supported by a class in physical performance. This thread of the course is supported by having the internationally renowned opera director, Keith Warner, as our Associate Artist, who works specifically on the second set of Scenes. We also recognise the importance of audition technique and engage people from within the RCS and in the industry, both in the UK and abroad, to give their insights into what makes the perfect audition candidate. The RCS shares a close relationship with Scottish Opera and has collaborated on a project annually since 2004, with performances in professional external venues in both Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Repertoire is very wide-ranging. It is chosen around the strengths of the students and seeks to engage the students with its content in seeking to expand their vocabulary in terms of vocal technique and stagecraft ability. Its suitability for that purpose has explored the very early (Monteverdi, Cavalli), mainstream (Rossini, Donizetti, Massenet, Bizet, Puccini, Tchaikovsky), a rich vein of 20th century repertoire (Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Britten, Weill) to contemporary works by Jonathan Dove, Judith Weir, Philip Glass and the UK staged premiere of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking in 2019.
We regularly invite guests to RCS to work with students to advise on current industry requirements, with students participating in mock auditions and receiving feedback on their performance and CVs.
Recent guests include Christian Curnyn, Matthew Waldren, Lionel Friend, Anthony Kraus, James Holmes, John Butt, and directors James Bonas, Jack Furness, Caroline Clegg, Jamie Manton, Maxine Braham, Olivia Fuchs, William Relton, Ashley Dean, Harry Fehr, Matthew Eberhardt, Stephen Lawless and Julia Hollander.
The primary focus of your learning will be the Principal Study. This core activity — and in particular, the individual lesson — will refine the skills essential to meeting the artistic and technical expectations of the programme. It will equip you with many of the skills needed to exercise independent learning and develop the autonomy necessary for a professional career.
In the case of the degrees in Performance, and Historically Informed Performance Practice, the Principal Study is your instrumental or vocal discipline; for the degrees in Opera, Conducting, Repetiteurship, Piano for Dance, and Accompaniment, it refers to the full range of skills associated with those roles, including high-level performance skills.
Principal Study 1 — 80 SCQF credits
Supporting Studies 1 — 30, 20 or 10 SCQF credits
Practice Research — 10 SCQF credits
The primary focus of your learning will be the Principal Study. This core activity — and in particular, the individual lesson — will refine the skills essential to meeting the artistic and technical expectations of the programme. It will equip you with many of the skills needed to exercise independent learning and develop the autonomy necessary for a professional career. In the case of the degrees in Performance, and Historically Informed Performance Practice, the Principal Study is your instrumental or vocal discipline; for the degrees in Opera, Conducting, Repetiteurship, Piano for Dance, and Accompaniment, it refers to the full range of skills associated with those roles, including high-level performance skills.
Principal Study 2 — 90 SCQF credits
Supporting Studies 2 — 30, 20 or 10 SCQF credits
Since the inception of the MMus Opera programme in 1994, students have come from all over the world to study in Glasgow and, of course, many have since forged international careers and are therefore now to be found singing on the international opera stage. The most common immediate destinations are:
Recent graduates have been offered places on the Covent Garden Jette Parker scheme, the National Opera Studio, the Welsh International Academy of Voice, the International Opera Studio Staatsoper Berlin, the Salzburg Festival Young Singers Project, Opera Studio Bregenz Festival, the Verbier Academy, as well as contracts in fully professional houses including the Royal Opera House, Staatsoper Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin, English National Opera, Scottish Opera, Opera North, Welsh National Opera and Royal Opera Den Norske.
Graduate Catriona Morison won the Cardiff Singer of the World Main Prize and Joint Song Prize (2017).
Recent graduate and winner of the Neue Stimmen International Singing Competition (2017), Svetlina Stoyanva, has made her debut at the Vienna State Opera and La Scala Milan within three years of graduating.
Anush Hovannisyan (pictured right) has recently made her debut as Musetta at Covent Garden.
Multiple graduates have been involved in the Scottish Opera Emerging Artists programme, including Arthur Bruce, Mark Nathan and Charlie Drummond.
Lauren Young is performing in English National Opera’s 2021 performance of Wagner’s The Valkyrie.
