Singing on the stage of the historic La Scala opera theatre in Milan is like a dream come true for 29-year-old Korean tenor Jaeheui Kwon – who has come to train in the homeland of Verdi and Puccini.

Mr Kwon is one of only 12 singers selected out of 250 candidates to attend the La Scala school – a unique institution that trains specialists in the operatic arts: from set designers to make-up artists, from technicians to dancers.

“The quality of teaching is what you can expect from the most famous opera house in the world,” said Filippo Polinelli, a 25-year-old baritone.

Mr Kwon said the teaching emphasised the importance of “emotion”, compared to traditional conservatoires where “there is a lot of writing and memorising”.

La Scala’s historic opera and ballet school was turned into an Academy in 2001 with additional subjects offered and it has around 900 students.

It’s “a place in which the know-how of a theatre that is the history of opera itself is handed down,” Stephane Lissner, a French theatre director who is in charge of La Scala, said in a statement on the academy’s website.

Wearing blue overalls marked La Scala and spattered with paint, the Academy’s stage design students are hard at work in the former factory that hosts the workshops in which the opera house’s giant sets are put together.

“These courses allow us to touch the material with our own hands,” said Maria Guarneri, 24, who joined the Academy after pursuing a fine arts degree that she said was too theoretical.

Ms Guarneri said that taking part in actual La Scala productions – such as the premiere of Richard Wagner’s The Valkyrie that opened the season this week – was “a unique opportunity”.

“There is an almost maniacal attention to every detail,” she said.

La Scala recruits most of its staff from the Academy, said Angelo Sala, director of the workshops. But if students decide to try their luck elsewhere, the training is still “a prestigious calling card”.

An inspiration for many at the school is alumnus Anita Rashvelishvili, a then 25-year-old Georgian woman who was chosen for the role of Carmen in the opera of the same name to open the season last year.

The dance school is based in another building in the centre of Milan, which hosts some 400 pupils aged between six and 19.

The school “gives us an excellent education”, said Maude-Helene Treille, a 17-year-old French girl training for a student tour in India in January.

“My dream is to join a major ballet troupe,” she said.