Don Giovanni by Co-Opera Co.

This summer, Co-Opera Co. will present two much-loved operas, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, at the John McIntosh Theatre of the London Oratory School. On tour later in the year, the company will also revive its successful production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. All three operas will be sung in English.

Co-Opera Co. is an innovative opera company, striving to help singers earn while they learn. By providing teaching programmes led by those who have 'been there and done that' the company is able to offer the best advice on skills, technique and improvement. Co-Opera Co. offers a number of unique performance opportunities.

Soprano Kate Flowers and lighting designer Paul Need founded Co-Opera Co. in 2009 to promote the welfare of professional opera singers. Both realised that the career paths of young singers entering the operatic profession are hampered by the lack of small-scale prestigious companies with which to work. It is now much harder for recently graduated singers to work alongside seasoned professionals in top-class productions yet the gaining of such experience is vital for their development.

Co-Opera Co. provides aspiring artists with the chance to work with, and learn from, some of the most highly-regarded singers, conductors, directors, actors and choreographers in the opera world today. They also benefit from invaluable, and paid, performance opportunities. The company is entirely self-funded and run by a group of over fifty eminent professionals from every area of opera who passionately feel the need to pass on their expertise to the next generation. Co-Opera Co. is about singers helping singers and musicians helping musicians.

The company has toured new productions of La bohème, Albert Herring, The Marriage of Figaro, Carmen and The Magic Flute to Cheltenham, Portsmouth, Blackpool, Croydon, Malvern, Wellingborough, Buxton, Bury St. Edmunds, Harrow, Chesterfield, Llandudno and Wilton’s Music Hall in London. Leading up to their summer season and UK tour in the autumn is a comprehensive training programme, Connections, where participants work on every aspect of opera.