Commissioned by Glyndebourne Opera House for their new youth oriented community opera, choirmaster
Gareth Malone begins his search for untapped teen-aged talent to become the fifty members for the opera's chorus. He realizes that his main obstacle is selling the fact of an opera to youth. After he meets with the creative team who tell him that the opera - called Knight Crew - will be a gritty urban drama, Gareth expands his search by trying to find where disadvantaged youth hang out, as he feels those who have a "past" may give the production a sense of realism. He also realizes that he is taking a chance in doing so, as the production is a huge commitment, which some may not be up for. Finding girls proves to be much easier than finding boys. He does manage to bring two hundred in for a three day workshop, one hundred who he will ultimately choose to audition for the opera's creative team. At that point, the decisions are out of Gareth's hands. Once he hears excerpts from an early draft of the yet uncompleted score, Gareth knows that the auditions are only the first hurdle these amateur chorus members will face. Meanwhile, the opera's creative team have their own problems in finding trained adult professional singers who can pass as teenagers alongside the actual teenagers who will be the chorus.
—Huggo