‘London is a factory for opera singers’: International opera award gala dinner

We speak to singers and the founder of the International Opera awards.

Transcript

00:00So my name is Harry Hyman. I'm the founder of the International Opera Awards and the bursaries

00:05that go with them. And what I'm very keen to do is make sure that young artists, young performers

00:11from around the world, everyone involved in opera, has a chance to develop their career without some

00:16of the stresses and strains that the modern world imposes on them. And that's done by way of our

00:21bursaries. Tonight is our principal fundraising event of the year and I'm hoping that we can beat

00:27last year's total and raise towards a hundred thousand pounds to provide bursaries for aspiring

00:33talent in opera from around the world. So my name is Luvo Maranti and I am a South African tenor

00:39currently at the National Opera Studio. And yeah, I was honored to be awarded a bursary by the

00:51Opera Awards and it was life-changing for me. Coming to the UK, it's difficult to be able to

00:59navigate with the climate here and the culture. So for me, they helped me a lot to be able to

01:06adapt quickly. And it's made a huge, significant improvement in my life. My livelihood, then I had to

01:15just focus on my craft and making sure that I do my best. You know, I don't worry about finances and

01:20all these other things. Yeah. So exactly 10 years ago, 2015, I was awarded by the International Opera

01:28Awards as the Young Singer of the Year. So it's now 10 years and I am very happy that I can to be here and

01:38perform at this wonderful occasion and help raise money, awareness, support for upcoming artists and

01:47to our industry itself, actually. It's a dream come true. It's a dream come true for me. You know,

01:53being in London is always where I've always seen it in TV. And so to be here and to see some of the

01:59buildings and, you know, so it's just like living a dream. So I'm very, very much happy. It's a top five

02:05city in the world, people tell me, on a par with Paris and Vienna, La Scala in Milan and New York.

02:13But we've had a tough time in London. We still have two opera companies just, Royal Opera House,

02:19which is up there, and ENO, which champions singing opera in English, which had a very tough time.

02:25London is

02:26London is one of the main cities in the world for the opera. Enormous amount of great musicians

02:36walking in the streets going to their rehearsals, to their studies, Royal College of Music and Drama,

02:41you know, academies, Gilhall School. It's, I think it's, it's, it could be a factory for opera. I think it is.

02:56.