Performing Arts

LOS ANGELES – They slide, run and leap, morphing into anxious cops and wily robbers.

It's a grown-up version of the classic playground game that forces the up-and-coming opera stars to think on their feet and react quickly to fellow performers.

The eight singers and one pianist are at the LA Opera for a new program that immerses budding artists in vocal, acting and dancing lessons until they're ready to appear onstage as professionals.

The competition to join this elite group is fierce: Only about 2 percent of the more than 450 who applied this year were admitted. Their presence has generated a bit of a buzz within the tight-knit opera world for the Los Angeles company, as they offer a new place to showcase the next big star.

"The people in that room, you won't be able to afford in three years. They're amazing, amazing talents," says Brandon McDonald, a professional dancer with the Mark Morris Dance Group, after teaching a dance class for the crew.

Other major U.S. opera companies have had young artist programs for decades. The San Francisco Opera's dates to the mid-1950s; the Chicago Lyric Opera started one in 1974.

Placido Domingo, the celebrated tenor who is also the LA Opera's general director, launched the Los Angeles program in 2006 to help artists through the difficult early stages of their careers. Many struggle because they need to enroll in pricey lessons to prepare for professional life while at the same time pay off their school loans. Some are also trying to raise families.

The LA Opera insulates them from some of those pressures by paying them a stipend to cover living expenses. The company would not divulge how much is paid to the students, who are also supplied with a steady stream of lessons and given chances to work with the masters of their craft.

In return, the LA Opera hopes the artists will return to perform major roles later in their careers.

Karen Vuong, a 23-year-old soprano, already has at least one job lined up after May, when she'll become one of the first to graduate from the program. The Kentucky Opera in Louisville has tapped her for a supporting role in its fall production of Jules Massenet's tragic romance Werther. She'll play Sophie, the younger sister of the female lead.

During a recent acting class, teacher Michael Goldstrom had Ms. Vuong practice singing the role of Ann Truelove in a scene from Stravinsky's Rake's Progress.

He told Ms. Vuong to pace the room in rhythm with the brooding, solemn music. He asked her to describe to him the bleak nighttime scene where Ann stands alone in front of her house after discovering her lover has left her.

Ms. Vuong's voice soared. Her eyes welled, and tears trickled down her face. "That was the first time I ever cried in the piece," she says. "I was like, oh, that was interesting. And I tried to explore it and use that."

Mr. Goldstrom says he pushes singers to connect with the rhythm and the words of the music and to use their imaginations to interpret their characters. "It is exhilarating to see these people transform," he says.

Ms. Vuong says the young artists program has helped her develop a step-by-step process to learning roles. And it's helped her cultivate more mundane skills such as time management.

"It forces you to reach another level with yourself," Ms. Vuong says.

Audrey McAvoy,

The Associated Press

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