THE Royal Opera House (ROH) is to build a £60m production park in Essex offering Hollywood-style “backlot” tours.

Visitors will be able to watch new sets being built in Covent Garden’s workshops and view famous costumes such as the one worn by Maria Callas when she gave her last performances as Tosca at the opera house.

The site will host a skills academy where school leavers can train as technicians for the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2012 London Olympics and world tours by acts such as Coldplay and the Rolling Stones. A full-size stage will serve as a training area.

The ROH considered relocating to Essex only after the Olympics organisers compulsorily purchased the land where its workshops stood.

The props and scenery park is now likely to play a part in reviving the Thames Gateway region, creating 250 jobs and 2,250 apprenticeships or training places. It is being built on 14 acres of land at Thurrock, better known for the Lakeside retail centre than for any association with stars such as Bryn Terfel and Angela Gheorghiu.

Tony Hall, chief executive of the ROH, devised the idea after he was called by Andrea Stark, chief executive of East England Arts Council, looking for a project to act as a “cultural beacon” in the Thames Gateway.

Hall said: “The opera house could have been on a different planet as far as Thurrock is concerned but we got the idea of putting our workshops in a place where we could bring in the public, children and people who might want to make the performing arts their career.”

The ROH has also commissioned On the Rim of the World, by the composer Orlando Gough, for youngsters from Essex and Kent to perform at Covent Garden.

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