Our Impact

We tour large-scale productions of classic and contemporary operas and musicals across the north of England. These are frequently praised for their excellence and innovation. Our work has won multiple awards, including the 2025 Sky Arts Award for Opera.

In 2024/25, we played to 115,514 people in 32 places:

Leeds – Bradford – Hull  – Newcastle – Nottingham – Salford – Accrington – Barnsley – Barrow-in-Furness – Buxton – Dewsbury – Doncaster – Gateshead – Grimsby – Haworth – Huddersfield – London – Manchester – Morley – Ripon – Saltaire – Scunthorpe – Wakefield – York

We offer various schemes to make our work accessible to first-time opera-goers, including an Under 30s scheme which has 7,198 members (2024/25). When we held a ‘pay what you can’ performance of La bohème recently, 88% of the audience were first-timers.

We are the largest UK opera company outside London, employing some 240 people year-round, including our full-time Orchestra and Chorus, and hundreds more on a freelance and seasonal basis. Company turnover in 2024/25 was £18.8m.

We programme and run our own venue, the Howard Assembly Room, which brings together top quality performers from across the globe to surprise, entertain and inspire. A beautifully-restored and accessible historic building, we are always working hard to improve access and be responsive to our audiences. We also share it with others, offering commercial hires with dedicated professional staff.

We are immensely grateful to Arts Council England, Leeds City Council, our supporters and audiences who enable us to create outstanding work which connects people and transforms lives throughout our region and beyond.