It’s a time of opportunities. For opera lovers who’ve survived the credit crunch, it’s time to don the evening dress and posh frocks, bring out the picnic sets, and head off to Garsington, Grange Park, Glyndebourne or Longborough. At the other end of the financial scale, it’s a time of opportunity for young singers, who may well be given their first professional engagement by one of these festivals.

One such singer is Cressida van Gordon, who this year joins the chorus for all three operas at Grange Park, near Winchester, as well as taking the part of The Hen in their new production of Janácek’s Cunning Little Vixen. As Cressida put it: “This is the first time ever that I am coming to work as a singer without having to worry: I’m actually earning money from it. It’s incredibly liberating!”

As for many others, money has been a problem for Cressida since her student days, and since she first had the dream of becoming a professional singer.

“I went to Lancaster University to read music and French,” she told me. “I was also a cellist. As university went on, my passion to sing grew, more than wanting to play the cello. In my final year, I wanted to change over to singing altogether, but this wasn’t allowed. The music department said: ‘We know you can pass the cello exam, but we don’t know anything about your singing’. That was quite frustrating.

“After university, a part-time job came up in Paris, teaching English at a business school. That meant I could study singing in London at the same time. My teacher, Paul Hamburger, was Viennese, so I spent nine months there as well. By now I knew I wanted to sing. But I was trying to do it all on my own, and fund private lessons by teaching. I couldn’t afford to go on a full-time training course, it costs a lot of money.”

At which point, an Oxfordshire charity entered the picture. Sophie’s Silver Lining Fund was founded after 19-year-old Sophie Large was killed in a car accident in February 1998. Her parents, Cherry and Stephen Large, who live at Chacombe, near Banbury, set up a fund in their daughter’s memory to help needy young artists with the considerable expenses of their training in acting or singing. Sophie had herself begun to encounter these financial barriers.

“I phoned up lots of organisations, and they simply weren’t interested in me at all,” Cressida explained. “But when I phoned Cherry Large, it was a completely different story. She was very friendly, she took an interest in me, and said that in order to be considered for funding I would have to get a place at music college. The conversation changed my ideas. There was some kind of hope, because I’d always been in debt since I was an undergraduate.”

Successful in gaining a place at the Birmingham Conservatoire, Sophie’s Fund gave Cressida a grant of £1,000 towards her fees: “I whooped with joy; it was a clear sign I was following the right path when the fund was so generous”. The fund added a further grant of £1,000 towards a course at the Royal Northern College of Music a year later.

‘My teacher in Birmingham, Barbara Robotham, was based at the Royal Northern, and I wanted to continue studying with her. She’d done wonders, she really made it all happen for me. Some teachers try to make out that singing is a mysterious thing, only possible for some people. I remember one teacher laughing at me because I couldn’t get my breathing right. But when I went to Barbara, there were no airs and graces about it, just: ‘This is what you have to do’.”

“The Royal Northern also prepares you for the real-life side of being a professional singer,” Cressida added with peals of laughter: “1t’s just the same as actually being a professional, except you don’t get paid!”

Then it was time to audition for that real-life, paid work. One of the auditions was for Grange Park.

“I was auditioned by Wasfi Kani, the chief executive. It was the first time in my life, ever, that someone has actually thanked me for travelling to an audition, thanked me for coming. This week, she’s been to a rehearsal, and came over and said: ‘Well done, it’s sounding good’. She knows how to treat people. Because of that, we’re all prepared to work really hard for her.

“It’s wonderful to be involved in three operas all at once, I’m really lucky. I’m loving every minute. For many years it has been my dream to become an opera singer and it is thanks to the help and support of Sophie’s Silver Lining Fund that I am now living this dream.”  n Grange Park Opera continues until Jul 6, with Norma, The Cunning Little Vixen, and the UK premiere production of Cavalli’s Eliogabalo in repertory. Full details and tickets: 01962 73 73 66 or online at: www.grangeparkopera.co.uk Cressida van Gordon will give a recital in aid of Sophie’s Silver Lining Fund on July 15 at Sophie’s Barn, Chacombe. For details e-mail: thelarges@aol.com