Their roles will be sung in Italian.

Members of the BCMA Junior Vocal Ensemble will undertake a crash course in Italian during rehearsals over the next 15 weeks before appearing with a cast of professional and semi-professional adult singers during Opera Van Diemensland's production of La Boheme.

"We'll take it slowly," said BCMA director Paula Heenan.

"I've done classical training myself and as a classical singer you have to study Italian and French but it certainly will be a challenge for the children," she said.

"Luckily we've got a teacher with an Italian background and the children's chorus is a small part in the show and a lot of it is repetitive, but will need to work very hard to get their Italian and roll their Rs. It adds another dimension to singing, performing and acting on stage to present in a different language."

The young choir were invited to be part of the cast for performances in Ballarat, Ballan and Abbotsford in Melbourne during June and July.

Ms Heenan said the opera company had approached her to see if she had singers aged eight to 12 who could take on the roles.

"We happened to have a group all ready to go in the age bracket they wanted and when I put it to the children they were all very excited about doing something so different," she said.

"We have worked with Opera Australia and Victorian Opera previously and have found it very beneficial for kids to work with adults and professionals on stage and be involved in major productions."

Opera Van Diemensland was born in 2018 as a collaboration of community arts groups who joined together to create an opera-based performing arts program for regional Victoria.

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The company is also auditioning for the principal artists and other adult roles.

"They are spreading a love of opera. Some people think opera is a bit hoity-toity but the kids are really open to it and to the challenge of being involved in more classical techniques."

Ms Heenan said the young group were particularly excited about performing with a full orchestra. "They will get the chance to rehearse with the full orchestra before they perform. They usually sing to backing tracks so it will be a very big thing to be part of a production with an orchestra and conductor.

Closer to the performance dates, Ms Heenan will "hand over" her young charges to the company's creative team.

"I will hand them over to the professional team to polish them, explain what they want them to do on stage, the costumes and sets."

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