How to learn an opera

I'm not entirely sure how many repetiteurs are out there waiting for me to explain to them how to learn a score. But just in case, here is my method. For me it works for anything up to Verdi; for Wagner, R Strauss and 20th-century works I use a slightly different approach which I'll explain another time.

Step 1. Obtain a recording. You'll get a lot more wear out of a good one than out of a budget one you'll want to upgrade in a couple of years so spend whatever you can afford to get the best one you can.

Step 2. Subconscious learning. Leave the music playing whenever possible for the week or two before you start learning; while you're cooking, reading, checking email, eating breakfast. You don't have to listen. Just hear it as often as possible.

Step 3. First crack. Play through the opera, singing all the voice parts as you go. Stop, slow down or repeat as often as you need to.

Step 4. Overview. Play through just the piano reduction without singing. Try not to stop too much.

Step 5. Familiarisation. You're now at the stage where you have enough scaffolding for information to adhere to. Read through the libretto, and a translation of it if you don't speak the language. (If you sort of speak it and reckon you can understand most of what's going on, read through a translation. You need to understand every word.)

Step 6. Listen through to your recording while following your score. This is a crucial stage and if you do this properly, really reading the music as it goes, and you've followed the previous steps, then by the time you get through this step you should be pretty much ready.

Step 7. Go through the piece one more time focusing now on singing the parts. Accompany yourself sketchily but don't be afraid to reduce to just harmony or even just a bass line, but make sure you sing all the text.

Step 8. Play through the whole thing again, trying to focus equally on singing and playing but prioritising playing if you can't always do both. (This step is a luxury. Usually by now rehearsals have started and I have to start learning the next piece.)

Not counting steps 1+2, this plan very roughly means that you should allow learning of time of 6 times the duration of the opera (this is allowing for step 3 to take twice as long as if you played straight through). Remember that memory takes time to set so you'll be more efficient if you spread this process over 2-3 weeks than if you try to cram it into the three days before rehearsals start. But turbo learning in an emergency is something one has to do sometimes and the plan still works.