Opera may struggle to attract young audiences, but not young singers. Every year dozens pour out of the universities, colleges and conservatoires, and meaningful opportunities are hard to come by.

That’s where British Youth Opera steps in, offering circumstances as near as possible to professional but without the pressure and the humdrum routine.

And what better way to test young singers than Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress? Not that it’s an easy sing but its trials are as much to do with character as with technical challenges; and because it’s sung in English, real communication matters. William Kerley’s succinct production provides the necessary dramatic support, and while there may be no imminent superstars in the cast, several performances suggest a bright future.

Not everyone quite gets to grips with Stravinsky’s musical prosody, which finds myriad unexpected ways to set Auden and Kallman’s effervescent libretto. In that regard, Nicky Spence’s Tom Rakewell comes across best, as feckless as he is gormless but with a touching lyricism. Tom meets his match in Lilly Papaioannou, sashaying around the stage as if she owns it, bringing natural glamour and a fruity mezzo to the role of Baba the Turk. Meanwhile, the darker the opera gets, the more convincing becomes Derek Welton’s satanic Nick Shadow.

Everyone gets careful support from conductor Peter Robinson; perhaps too careful: sometimes the Southbank Sinfonia could be spikier in the pit. Perhaps that will come; the run, alternating with BYO’s Rossini double-bill, continues until Friday.

Information: 0844 412 4322.