The House | Meet The Royal Ballet And Opera Apprentices Proving Timothée Chalamet Wrong
(Asya Verzhbinsky/Alamy) 7 min read52 min Six times a year, the Royal Ballet and Opera holds school matinees. Matilda Martin meets some of those who went from auditorium to working backstage as it tries to shake off its elitist reputation Timothée Chalamet claims that nobody cares about opera or ballet. Emma Huntley would like a word. The 20-year-old loved tailoring but couldn’t quite see how she was going to make a living from it until she was taken on as an apprentice costume maker by the Royal Opera House (now known as the Royal Ballet and Opera) – “a dream come true”. Some might suspect a cynical attempt to soften its image as an elitist institution but that’s a hard stance to maintain on meeting those like Emma, who are benefiting from a determined effort to widen participation and interest in the art forms. And the Royal Ballet and Opera points out that it is in its own interests to recruit more diversely to plug the skills gaps needed to keep the show …
