This week, I’m joined by bass Barnaby Rea for a longer-than-usual opera special I mean if we're doing opera, we've gotta go long, right?!), recorded backstage at the Royal Opera House, London.
Barnaby is a British/Irish bass who trained at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the National Opera Studio. He was a Harewood Artist at English National Opera and a member of the Oper Frankfurt solo ensemble. He has also appeared with companies including the Royal Opera House, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Zurich Opera, Teatro Real, Opéra de Lyon, Scottish Opera and Opera North.
We recorded this while Barnaby was performing Doctor Grenvil in Verdi’s La traviata, in Richard Eyre’s long-running Royal Opera production.
This episode was also partly inspired by a recent visit to Milan and the extraordinary Teatro alla Scala, which got me thinking about opera not just as music, but as architecture, social ritual, commerce, class, spectacle and power.
So this is partly a conversation about opera singing, partly a look at the machinery of a major opera house, and partly an attempt to understand why opera can feel both thrillingly immediate and socially intimidating.
We talk about opera vs musical theatre, why singers train for so long, how a voice can fill a huge theatre without amplification, what “placement” and resonance mean, and why vibrato is not just decorative wobbling.
We also get into opera’s social context: boxes, gods, stalls, ticket prices, access, prestige, and whether opera’s elitist reputation is entirely fair.
There’s also a wider reflection on live music now: why huge arena shows can dominate the public story of the music industry while smaller venues, grassroots promoters, festivals and independent musicians are struggling.
This is a longer episode than usual, but that feels fitting for opera: there is a lot of voice, history, scale and backstage machinery to get into.
In this episode
00:00 – Steve introduces the opera special, Barnaby Rea, the Royal Opera House and the Milan / La Scala inspiration
01:35 – Barnaby’s route into opera: school swing band, musical theatre, Sweeney Todd, Guys and Dolls and early training
07:30 – Guildhall, opera school, learning the craft, and why opera takes so long to train for properly
12:30 – Singing in different languages and understanding what you are actually saying
15:40 – Opera vs musical theatre: amplification, stamina, acting, dancing and vocal demands
20:45 – Inside the Royal Opera House: backstage scale, sets, docks, ballet and multiple productions
24:45 – La Scala, opera boxes, social hierarchy, standing tickets and opera as mass entertainment
30:05 – Arena economics, struggling grassroots venues, festivals and why smaller gigs matter
36:50 – Is opera elitist? Ticket prices, access, class, prestige and opera culture in Europe
42:35 – Entertaining Noises: Barnaby demonstrates the bass voice
43:00 – Breath, resonance, placement, formant, range and preparing different roles
50:15 – Show days, double casting, vocal recovery, travel, jump-ins and the pressure of saying yes
55:00 – Berg, volume, singing without microphones, working with the room, and breathing with the orchestra
01:00:30 – Vibrato: what it is, why it exists, and why it is not just decorative wobbling
01:03:10 – Steve attempts a brief opera lesson
01:07:40 – Learning roles, memory, punctuality, preparation and what performers can control
01:12:45 – What is music for? Barnaby on release, escape, connection and performance
01:15:50 – Music as personal soundtrack, film scoring, galleries, headphones and emotional recontextualising
01:16:40 – Barnaby’s links, La traviata and walking into productions with decades of history
01:18:35 – Outro: Peter Grimes, Wilton’s Music Hall, Ocean Songs, the website and what’s coming next
Guest
Find Barnaby Rea at barnabyrea.com and on Instagram at @barnabyrea_bass.
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