“I want what we do to matter to someone,” says Marissa Howard, a 29-year-old soprano who is featured in YAPs, a new documentary in which five young American opera singers share a year of their lives as they attempt to break into the industry.

The other four are soprano Amandalynne Perzyk (29), mezzo-soprano Ria Ipa (24), tenor Matteo Adams (26) and countertenor Chuanyuan Liu (26).

In a trailer announcing their casting, their delight is clear to see. “After so much rejection, someone has noticed that I’m just a diamond in the rough!” laughs Perzyk.

Left to right: Ria Ipa, Miriam Gordon-Stewart and Marissa Howard. Photo courtesy of Miriam Gordon-Stewart

“Hopefully, my story will resonate with some of yours,” says Chinese-born Liu.

A co-production by Victory Hall Opera, its singer-led initiative SINGTANK and Defiant Encore Films, YAPs is directed and edited by Australian-born, US-based soprano, librettist and director Miriam Gordon-Stewart.

A member of Opera Australia from 2001 to 2005, Gordon-Stewart is Artistic Director of Victory Hall Opera in Charlottesville, Viriginia, which she co-founded in 2015.

She was recently in Australia for the Melbourne...