House music

From Saturday, the Royal Opera House will be breaking classical boundaries, says Deborah Bull, the woman in charge of refreshing the parts that the main stage cannot reach

Over the next few months, the Royal Opera House's alternative performance spaces - the Linbury Studio Theatre, the Clore Studio Upstairs, the Crush Room and the Vilar Floral Hall - will play host to some extraordinary artists and extraordinary events: events you might not expect to find within this elegantly stuccoed, 1858 theatre that dominates the Covent Garden landscape. But the Festival of Firsts and A Nitro at the Opera are exactly the sort of events that the department that I direct - ROH2 - was established to dream up, search out and facilitate in the wonderful new performing arenas that the 1999 refurbishment provided.

Following its redevelopment, the Royal Opera House, previously a single red-plush, gilded auditorium, emerged as something akin to an arts centre, with two additional stages and further potential performance spaces in the front-of-house areas. The first two years saw a varied range of artists use the venues on an ad-hoc basis, but with the establishment of ROH2, the House has defined the role of the alternative spaces in meeting its own artistic objectives as well as serving the needs of audiences and the arts community.

As a long-standing employee of the organisation - 20 years with the Royal Ballet - I had never quite grasped the role that the Royal Opera House plays, beyond providing the four walls in which we practised our art. It was clear to me what the ballet and opera companies did, but the function of their "parent" - the body that paid me, and that seemed, especially in later years, to attract headlines and media attention at a level few artists ever achieve - was less obvious. I even wondered whether the ballet and opera companies might operate quite successfully without any parental influence at all. Jim, the stage-door keeper, could simply keep a diary recording which group was due on any day, and hand out the key as appropriate. Last one to leave turns out the lights.

Developing a programming policy for the alternative spaces created by the redevelopment has, I believe, helped to clarify (in my mind, certainly) what the Royal Opera House is for. It exists (and is funded) to preserve, maintain and advance the art forms of opera and ballet - which involves, of course, not only taking care of the art itself but ensuring that as many people as possible get to see and enjoy it. It seeks to achieve this, firstly, and most obviously, by running world-class opera and ballet companies. But the Royal Opera House also fulfils its remit in several other ways: through its education and access department, its orchestra, the Vilar Young Artists Programme (VYAP), an active marketing department, archives, technical and production teams, and, since its inception 18 months ago, through ROH2. Looked at this way, the entire organisation becomes responsible, collectively, for achieving the mission, rather than functioning as a group of service industries that support the core activity on the main stage.

ROH2's particular focus is on pushing the art forms forward: producing and presenting new art that develops and encourages new artists and welcomes new audiences - a programme of work that might take place anywhere in the building and that complements, rather than duplicates, the repertoire of the main stage. We don't do this in isolation: we collaborate with the opera and ballet companies, which will each be presenting work in the Linbury this season, with the education department, which regularly use the venues for a wide range of events, and with a group of associate companies and artists that can help us in achieving our aims.

We have, so far, established partnerships with Music Theatre Wales, Nitro and Walker Dance Park Music, as well as our first associate artist, the choreographer Cathy Marston. With each associate, we agree and then facilitate a programme of work that will support their ongoing development while at the same time bringing their energy, creativity and ideas into the building. I see these relationships as mutually symbiotic, a bridge across which benefits flow in both directions.

The autumn season in the Linbury Studio Theatre includes premieres from Music Theatre Wales and Cathy Marston as well as two festivals that exemplify our aims for ROH2. First up is the Festival of Firsts, sponsored by the Helen Hamlyn Trust in memory of her late husband Paul, which will present nine individual artists and companies new to the ROH. Between 20-25 September, audiences can sample a varied menu of performance in a single evening: Eddie Ladd, Clod Ensemble, Hoi Polloi, Stan's Café, Base Chorus, Maria Ryan, Jean Abreu, Benji Reid, Ursula Martinez and Wild Roots Collective. With this diverse list of emerging talent, and a single-ticket price of £5, we hope to attract an audience that might not normally consider visiting the Royal Opera House, as well as enticing regulars from the upstairs auditorium into the sleek (if less padded) seats of the Linbury.

Six weeks later, on 9 November, the Royal Opera House will echo to a different tune as A Nitro at the Opera (Nato, for short) takes over the entire house for a day. Nitro (previously Black Theatre Co-op) is Britain's oldest black music-theatre company, and, over a drink with its director Felix Cross, we imagined what might happen if we put together a group of talented and innovative composers from alternative cultures with the operatic traditions of the Royal Opera House. We live in a vibrant multicultural world and I believe that the arts will only remain relevant if we acknowledge and embrace that world in our artistic enquiries. So, in a unique collaboration with Nitro, we invited nine black British composers to take part in a year-long programme of mentoring, development and skills-building that will culminate in the presentation at the Royal Opera House of new work for the classical voice.

In the Linbury, three 15-minute operas by Errollyn Wallen, Dominique Le Gendre and Clement Ishmael will be conducted by Yuval Zorn of the Vilar Young Artists Programme. Upstairs, in the Crush Room, six composers, renowned in their own genres but less familiar with operatic convention, will present a concert of arias and duets written for Ailish Tynan and Hubert Francis, also from the VYAP.

In the Vilar Floral Hall and Clore Studio Upstairs, there will be the chance to explore (and even attempt) sections of Scott Joplin's Treemonisha, arguably the first opera written by a black composer. Master of ceremonies for the day will be Curtis Walker, and with a range of discussions and debating opportunities chaired by Bonnie Greer, it should be well worth gambling the price of admission - especially since it's free.

The establishment of ROH2, and a programme for the alternative spaces, has, in many ways, necessitated a culture shift within an organisation that has, for half a century, managed two performing companies and a single stage. But it's a shift that the organisation has welcomed, supported and, ultimately, made happen. As the autumn season approaches, and our theories are translated into live, new art, I recall the words of a wise friend when I embarked upon this project: "Talking's important, but you change culture by doing it."

Royal Opera House (020-7304 4000)