The Metropolis

In-depth interview: Kate Flowers of CoOperaCo on her innovative operatic finishing school

Mike Pollitt | Thursday 9 August, 2012 15:14

Kate Flowers has a name right off the stage, a voice right off the radio, and a dream that’s all her own. She wants to build an opera company, from scratch, where unpolished young operatic talent can be buffed and shined until they gleam in the limelight’s glow.

I went down to Brockley to speak to Kate. She’s a real chatterer with a nice warm Cheshire lilt, and a dash of theatrical glamour (see photo below). She’d make a great presenter on Radio 2.

I asked her to explain what Co-Opera Company is all about, and why she thinks all the hard work is worth it.

Snipe: How did your opera company start?

Kate Flowers: I’m an opera singer, and had a very good career [she’s not wrong, see her imdb page for context.] I lost my voice, just after I’d had my Covent Garden debut and my ENO debut. Anyway I worked my way back, and I was working with young singers who had just been at college. And working with them…they had wonderful voices but that’s a tiny little bit of what being a performer is. It’s whether you can engage with an audience and the people on stage…and I was moaning a lot about it…one night in Dublin we moaned all night and Paul (Paul Need, Co-Opera Company’s Co-director – they do like their co’s at Co-Opera Co) said “stop moaning about it; do something about it. Let’s start an opera company.” That was July 2008.

Snipe: So you’re responding to gaps in the skills of young performers?

Kate Flowers: When I left college in Manchester I was lucky, there were a lot of small prestigious companies around. As a young singer you were able to work on stage with some of the top singers in the world. You were earning and learning at the same time. It was like an apprenticeship. Those companies disappeared in the 80s and 90s. People are going into college being able to sing, but you’re having to tell them basics like what stage left and stage right is, which is basic stagecraft.

Co-Opera Co started running weekend workshops for young singers. Experienced pros, Kate’s contacts from years in the business, came in to pass on their knowledge.

Snipe: So you think there’s been a disappearance of rungs on the ladder, and people can’t get to the top without them?

Kate Flowers: It’s a pyramid. Those people at the top are only there because of everything else…the bulk of what’s happening in opera. There’s also a perception when you’ve spent a lot of time and lot of money on your training…you come out expecting to be able to get a job. We all know that’s a bit tricky. If we can help people realise that to take smaller jobs, work in a chorus [is a good first step].

Snipe: Those high expectations are not specific to opera. It takes a bit of time to learn that it’s not failing if you’re not headlining on your first job. My generation is struggling with that.

Like everything else just now, opera has a brutal job market. And you thought getting a Social Media Account Executive gig was tough…

Kate Flowers: There are very many more singers on the market, being brought into colleges because that’s more revenue. But the singers come out with the expectation that they can earn a living. And there are fewer companies. So people are having to learn to make their own opportunities. We had 400 people audition this year for 5 roles in Hansel and Gretel, and 9 in Don Giovanni.

Snipe: Can you talk about money? How does that work?

Kate Flowers: In 2009 to put two operas on cost £40,000. And we don’t have any money. So we had to ask performers for a contributon. Each year we’ve reduced the amount that people have had to contribute. This year the soloists haven’t had to contribute at all. We toured to 7 venues…each of these made a little bit of profit that went towards the next season. And we pay people out of any profit we make from performances, so they get a little back. Everybody gets the same money the technical staff, the flautist, the singer…everybody. This year the contribution is £500.

If that seems steep, and it might, reflect on the 400 people auditioning for 14 roles. There is also a bursary, in honour of Phillip Langridge, for talented people who can’t afford the fee. The company has expanded and now takes on musicans for an orchestra, costume designers, lighting technicians and administrators – everything you might need to make an opera work. Kate says she and Paul don’t take any money from it all. That’s where the cafe is going to come in.

Snipe: What’s the dream? What’s the future?

Kate Flowers: The ideal eventually, if we win the lottery, is to have a centre of excellence which would be a theatre, working studios and a cafe. The Co-Opera Co cafe. That would make the money. There’s much more money to be made in drinks than opera. We want to build our own company. That’s what young singers are missing. It’s an old fashioned idea, but I think we could bring it into this century and make it something really special.

See also:

Ten things I learnt at the opera, by a first-time opera goer