Cambridge University Opera Society (CUOS) exists to organise, advise and encourage operatic activities within the university, including staged productions, masterclasses, workshops, concert performances, recitals, talks, opera trips to London and social events.

By bringing together those with the different skills and interests involved in opera, be they musical, dramatic, artistic, technical or organisational, CUOS provides a focus for the wealth of talent, energy, and experience in Cambridge. Few student activities are so ambitious – or rewarding – as opera.

CUOS has a distinguished history of bringing new works to audiences, as well as conceiving fresh presentations of well-known operas, from the British premiere of Berlioz’s Beatrice and Benedict in 1967 to Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro in 2006, with a new English translation by Jeremy Sams. In 2003–4, the student productions in Cambridge were a double bill of undergraduate chamber operas, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Britten’s Peter Grimes. In 2004-5, the society staged two major English-language productions: Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. A highly successful run of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel (2007) was followed by a sell-out, contemporary interpretation of Don Giovanni in Lent Term 2008. This year’s opera is Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.

They needed a website to show off their great work, allow people to join the society, and to promote their upcoming operas, masterclasses and trips.