The majority of young artists, emerging blinking into the sunlight from their conservatoires, will have to undergo an apprenticeship of sorts in professional chorus work. I am one of these, and after completing a number of such contracts, a recurring concern has been the lack of adherence to basic working regulations in the opera industry.

In the UK there are a whole slew of regulations which govern fair and just working environments. Just a handful of examples include:

• the Working Time Regulations 1998, which limit excessively long working hours;
• the EU Working Time Directive 2003, which sets out fair and just working conditions, including extra protection for night time work;
• section 151 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992, which governs the right to statutory sick pay;
• the Employment Rights Act 1996, which gives the right to leave for child care.

Whilst companies may pay lip service to these in the small print of contracts, in practice the rehearsal process can be rather different. Contracts are often so misleading about the nature of the working hours involved that they amount to sheer misrepresentation. Many companies also penalise absence for any reason, including genuine illness.

Entitled and arrogant directors perpetuate this power game.

Since most young professionals spend their first few years in chorus contracts, they are often duped into working overtime in jobs that didn’t even pay minimum wage to begin with. The attendance requirements at these companies often rule out maintaining any other work; meaning that they then become pay-to-sing projects, which most can ill-afford to undertake. Even more frustratingly, it is not uncommon for cast members to then be called in to sit around and do nothing, at the director’s whim.

Such a blasé attitude to basic employment rights also raises issues of inherent misogyny. In 2018, the organisation SWAP’ra (Supporting Women and Parents in Opera) was founded in the UK to combat the unfairness such a culture creates for women with children in particular. Schedules in the opera world are sent out weekly, typically each Saturday; not in advance. The requirement to be “on call” day and night, over a 3 month production period, far exceeds the average 9-5 required in other fields, and puts parents to vast expense in organising childcare.

Sometimes important rights and dignities matter more. You’ve got the arm of the law behind you on this one.

Particularly as a young artist, my colleagues and I are often left with a feeling of working in a completely unaccountable, unregulated environment. There is no central authority to issue complaints to; no one to hold these companies accountable to. This is exacerbated by the inherent imbalance of power between the established opera company and the young artist desperate to make a good impression no matter what the cost.

Entitled and arrogant directors perpetuate this power game. Indeed one I worked with blithely announced that anyone who had an absence would be blacklisted for future work. This was in a training company which was heavily subsidised by the government; and the work was unpaid. Companies which support such cavalier behaviour need to stop languishing somewhere in the 19th century and have the same accountability as all other employers.

Why do so many young singers put up with it?

The implication from such directors is that, given the scarcity of opportunities, you are damn lucky to be there at all; and should be clinging to your chance to prove yourself with every last breath you have. But to exploit the naïve earnestness of recent graduates is distasteful to say the least.

Perhaps the question to ask is, why do so many young singers put up with it? I would urge my colleagues to put aside the undying loyalty to the artistic dream for a moment and speak up against unfair working conditions of any kind.

Sometimes important rights and dignities matter more. You’ve got the arm of the law behind you on this one.