Created in Birmingham

The Stirrer has a short interview with Sally Luton of the Arts Council where she lays out the conditions for Birmingham Opera Company to continue to receive funding. Here’s the meat:

“The issue has never been, ‘is this good quality work?’ The issue is that the work happens infrequently, so how can we ensure that a company which claims to be about community opera actually is part of the community.

“Each of their projects tends be a one-off which is very exciting, but what happens afterwards? Can we have a programme of year round activities, maybe by developing partnerships? That’s the issue.

Sour note - terrific and concise defence of Birmingham Opera Company in the Times by Richard Morrison. Hard to pick a small bit so here’s three paragraphs:

Well, as anyone who has dealt with the Arts Council will expect, the reasons have nothing to do with art or excellence. The Arts Council is miffed that BOC hasn’t established a “third income stream”. In other words, it doesn’t get much private funding, so relies too heavily on public subsidy.

That’s firstly untrue (its recent Traviata was backed by £50,000 from the Moores Foundation); secondly based on too narrow a definition of private support (many local companies support it “in kind” by donating premises or goods – such as those coffins in Giovanni); and thirdly misses the point. Of course swanky sponsors aren’t going to be attracted to opera presented on gritty industrial estates: where would they ply their clients with champers and canapés? But does this mean that opera must always be staged in venues where the middle-classes feel comfortable? Is that the view of James Purnell, the new Culture Secretary?

The underlying truth seems to be that Vick is a maverick, and the company he created and to which he lovingly returns (between directing engagements with every great opera company in the world) is created in his image - ie, structurally unconventional. Far too much so, clearly, for the pen-pushers at the Arts Council, who complain about BOC’s “high-risk strategy” as if risk is a bad thing in the arts.

via D’log

As you may already be aware Birmingham Opera is facing an uncertain future, possibly closure, after their Arts Council grant was cut as part of the bloody cull of last month. The Post has all the details which I’ll attempt to parse here:

They currently get £324,000 from the Arts Council and £197,000 from the city council. While the former has been removed they can apply for a “project grant” capped at £100,000, though getting this is not guaranteed.

According to The Post “The Arts Council is understood to have disapproved of the company’s decision to bring Vick’s production of La Traviata to the NIA, regarding it as too great a financial risk.

This production (blogged about in advance here and here with post-performance responses collated here and here) sold 9,908 of the 10,000 seats and, while profits were slim, was generally considered a success. Here’s a photo:

What sets Birmingham Opera apart from other opera companies is their pathalogical desire to bring people into opera who wouldn’t normally do it, not just watching but performing. Which, personally, confuses the hell out of me since I thought that’s what you needed to do to get Arts Council funding these days.

The closing quote from the AC does sort of answer this though:

“While we recognise the quality of Birmingham Opera Company’s work, we have been talking to them for some time to flag our concerns about aspects of their business and financial models. We are still in constructive talks to explore other funding opportunities available to them.”

In other words, they were told to sort the books out or face losing the money and they didn’t. Of course the timing of this decision, coming along with a massive reduction in arts funding, does make this reasoning rather suspect.

Naturally, Birmingham Opera are planning to fight this and have a chance to appeal this month. One thing they want to do is get a forum or similar set up on their website so their wide and disparate support network can come together and build a strategy. This needs to happen as soon as possible so if someone web-savvy can help them get something up and running quickly please get in touch with them. I don’t think it needs to be anything complicated - phpbb should do. (I’d do it but I’m sort of not around…)

The 2007 review will continue tomorrow…

Four reviews (so far) of Birmingham Opera’s La Traviata in the national press. The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Independent all pronounce it a good thing. The Times, however, not so impressed. (Who knew opera critics could be such bitches!)

I also found a nice Guardian piece on the 10 teenagers who took part in the opera with no prior experience as part of BOC’s legendary outreach program.

Marc Reck has a bunch of photos from La Traviata from the performance and the after-show party.

Not a huge number of blog posts found so far.

Marc Reck (with photos)

Nadeem Shabir (with photos)

Andy Pryke

Charlotte Carey

The Stirrer

Birmingham Post review

Any more, leave a link in the comments.

A couple of items about the La Traviata opera have appeared online. John Mostyn writes about his experience being part of the chorus and then one of the actors and there’s another video on YouTube, this time about the rehearsals.

Previously on CiB

You’ve probably seen the flyers and advertising for La Traviata taking place at the NIA on 25th and 26th October. I hadn’t given it much thought to be honest, assuming it to be a fleeting touring thing, but a smidgen of investigation reveals there to be a significant Birmingham connection. I know this because Marc Reck posted this video on his blog:

If you don’t have time to watch that, in short this production was devised by Birmingham Opera’s Artistic Director Graham Vick for the world-renowned Arena di Verona. As the Italian production used local talent so this one gathers 240 singers from Birmingham along with the CBSO providing the music. Actors are drawn from the company’s work in the local community over the years and while the costumes and sets are being shipped from Verona.

So, while this is an international event, it’s also a testament to the Birmingham Opera Company who, according to their online history, do much more than large-scale Italian classics at the NIA:

Two things were clear: Firstly we would open up the process of opera production and ask people from the city to join us. Secondly we would perform the work in unusual places not normally associated with opera or theatre. We wanted to circumvent the idea that certain kinds of people went to certain kinds of places to see opera. This way the operas themselves could speak directly to audiences.

Since 2001 we have presented Berg’s Votzek in a dilapidated warehouse on the edge of the Ladywood housing estate, Beethoven’s Fidelio in a big top pitched in Aston Park beside Aston Villa FC and Bernstein’s Candide in an old car parts factory in Digbeth. Now we are exploring the work of Monteverdi through a series of projects during 2004 leading to a large-scale production of Ulysses Comes Home in Spring 2005 to be directed by Artistic Director, Graham Vick and with internationally renowned tenor Paul Nilon in the title role.

Tickets for La Trav range from £15 - £45 from here.

Further info:
Wikipedia on La Traviata
Birmingham Opera Company website
A fair few photos of the Verona performance on Flickr.