Just a quick one to say that BBC 2 are broadcasting a double bill of Birmingham Opera Company this Saturday, 19 Feb. You can catch Verdi: The Director’s Cut at 3.25pm and Othello at 4.25pm – 7pm.
Verdi: The Director’s Cut – Graham Vick prepares his production of Verdi’s Aida for Bregenz Festival on the banks (and sometimes in!) Lake Constance. The film maker, Andy King Dabbs then followed Graham Vick to Birmingham to document the creation of another new Verdi production, Othello, with Birmingham Opera Company in the Argyle Works, a former factory, in Digbeth.
Othello – a broadcast of the Birmingham Opera Company production in its entirety starring Ronald Samm as Othello – the first time in a professional production in the UK the role has been sung by a black tenor. He is joined by Stephanie Corley as Desdemona and Keel Watson as Iago and the Birmingham Opera Company Orchestra & Chorus is conducted by the distinguished UK conductor Stephen Barlow.
(photo by Pete Ashton)
I saw Birmingham Opera Company’s staging of Stravinsky’s The Wedding on Friday night – the dress rehearsal, to be precise. Claire Ferrell has commented on our previous post to say:
I attended this last night, the performance was absolutely incredible. I am a huge fan of Birmingham Opera Company, they blow me away every year. We are so lucky to have such an exciting organisation in Bham.
And I have to say I absolutely agree. It was great, and had more ideas, cheekiness and more serious things to say packed into its 30 minute running time than just about anything else I’ve seen this year.
A proper review of the show won’t be worth me writing – if I’m honest I’m still not quite sure what happened. I hardly remember the music and had no idea what was going on most of the time. Everything was going on most of the time. It was more an installation than anything with the cast (hundreds of brides and grooms) running riot throughout AE Harris.
Things started as soon as we started drifting into the building, with the cast getting into character and assuming odd positions all over the place. I know I’m not the only person to have taken this picture:
And to think this was ‘just’ a quick little thing to fill the gap before a bigger production in the spring of next year. Can’t wait for that.
Now I think of it, there’s been quite a bit of Stravinsky around recently. BRB included The Firebird in Russian Steps in 2008 and the 3D audiovisual spectacular version of The Rite of Spring will be at the Symphony Hall next year. Anyone for Petroushka?
This weekend Birmingham Opera Company will be presenting Stravinsky’s The Wedding at A E Harris. The experimental performance will last half an hour, as audiences are drawn around the space, with no formal seating and performance area.
The Wedding is a screaming, shrieking, flat out masterpiece with its rhythmic drive and unique sound world – 4 virtuoso pianists on grand pianos, a dazzling array of percussion, 4 soloists and a chorus. Written as a ballet in 1923 for Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes, Stravinsky drew on Russian traditions to conjure up a vivid and intense depiction of the old ways, and the not so old!
Performances take place on Friday 19th November 8.30pm / Saturday 20th November 7.30pm & 9pm / Sunday 21st November 4pm & 5.30pm.
Tickets are £7.50 (£5 concessions) and can be booked through The Ticket Sellers on 0844 870 0000
Fiona Cullinan‘s been pointing her picture box at rehearsals. Set on Flickr here.
Info about The Wedding here.
The BBC are doing a big season of opera stuff including:
a behind-the-scenes look at Graham Vick’s productions of Aida and Othello
In fact I’ve just noticed that BOC have announced that:
Birmingham Opera Company’s Verdi’s Othello and a documentary on the work of Graham Vick are to be broadcast in June 2010 on BBC 2
Which is good. I remember hearing that the BBC came in to film Othello during it’s hugely fantastic run at the end of last year but I also heard it didn’t go quite as planned. Looks like everything turned out alright after all.
It’d be pointless me adding to the mounting pile of gushing reviews this performance is receiving, so I’m going to float an idea instead (which should give you an inkling of what I thought of it).
Graham Vick is the Artistic Director of Birmingham Opera Company. Year-round he works with the world’s major operas and returns to Birmingham to let his imagination run riot. If you’re lucky enough to see one of his BOC productions he’ll be the guy with the look of impish enthusiasm ushering the audience around and mouthing the words.
Here are his notes from Othello’s programme:
After the first night thousands hijacked Verdi’s carriage to parade him through the streets of Milan in triumph
I think Birmingham owes Graham Vick the same treatment.
Othello is deservedly sold out. However, I’ve heard a rumour that the BBC will be filming the show for broadcast, so fingers crossed on that.
It’s taken me a while to mention this one although it’s been on my radar for ages.
Birmingham Opera Company are doing Othello on 7 dates between 5-19 December. It’s going to be amazing and epic because, by and large, amazing and epic are what Birmingham Opera Company do.
Like last year’s King Idomeneo, this will be a walkabout performance in a massive industrial building – specifically Argyle Works on Great Barr Street. However, BOC manager Jean Nicholson has suggested that the days of the company putting on shows in this way may be limited.
The performance will incorporate professional opera singers, an amateur chorus (to include Pete Ashton, who’s occasionally seen around these parts and who has been taking photos during rehearsals, including the one below), a new children’s chorus and a dance company of 200 young people as part of the People Dancing programme (read about Smash Bro’z involvement in that).
Here are some bonus bulletpoints:
- In this production, Ronald Samm will be the first black man to play Othello for a professional opera company in the UK
- Pete Ashton’s done a good analysis of the poster and what lies behind it
- Shoes may not be worn in the performance space – socks will be available
- The Saturday shows (5, 12 and 19 Dec) have already sold out
- You really should buy yourself a ticket. Worst case scenario – you won’t know what you missed
Warwick Uni’s opera, drama, and dance societies have got together and are putting on performances of Purcell’s ‘Dido and Aeneas‘ at a selection of churches around the West Mids, including a show at St Martin’s church on Wed 26 November.
There’s plenty more info on the press release here.
‘Tweedeleededeedee, Sir Ru Barb and the Green Wolf‘ is the next project from The Destroyers and is an ‘urban folk opera written by Paul Murphy with a score by Frank Moon’.
Set in no particular time this opera draws freely from past, present and future to create an upbeat cautionary tale for discerning audiences of adults and children
It’s a family affair by the looks of things, and will be taking place on Sat 6 Dec at the Town Hall between 11am and 1pm. The first 45 mins will be a workshop to prepare the kids for singing roles in the chorus for the performance, which will start at 12pm.
Pete at Spaghetti Gazetti reminded me of this. His post also has the flyer and a story about Paul Murphy from back in the day.
Jamie at Audiences Central has blogged about something interesting which makes me wonder which is more likely:
- Traffic wardens are routinely told to wander around abandoned industrial units in Ladywood at night looking for cars to ticket; or
- Visitors to (the nationally acclaimed) Birmingham Opera Company’s King Idomeneo are being opportunistically targetted by the city’s traffic wardens.
After hearing council leader Mike Whitby expound on the importance of the arts in the city last night I sincerely hope it’s not the latter.
Now, fair enough, a double-yellow’s a double-yellow and there’s a fire station a couple of roads away that it wouldn’t be very smart to block off. But why does the response have to be to send people to ticket the cars (and rake in the cash) night after night? Those streets surround derelict buildings and are deserted in the evenings so surely there’s a more constructive solution.
I understand the Opera Company have actually been managing the limited parking availability as well as possible – stewards are telling people where not to park and they’ve put on buses from the Town Hall – so there’s a sense of satisfaction when the wardens (allegedly responding to ‘a complaint’) are unable to ticket anyone. Maybe, in hindsight, the Company should have contacted the council themselves to put extra arrangements in place.
Birmingham Opera Company are busting a gut to do something spectacular, putting Birmingham on the map (for the right reasons) and providing something genuinely exciting to attract new audiences and people from outside the city.
Why on earth would anyone from the city want to stand in their way?
By the way, I’ve tried to be a proper journo about this and have called the council’s press office for a response but I’m still waiting for that and, heck, there’s a comment box below. If I do hear back from anyone I’ll update this post.
Oh, and the final performances of King Idomeneo are tonight and tomorrow – if you’ve not gone yet then please do, it’s great.
Time for another one of these I reckon.
If you spot a review, some photos, film or whatever (or produce something yourself) then let me know in the comments. I’ll be searching out what I can and hopefully we’ll collect together some interestingness.
First up the Birmingham Opera Company website and the Birmingham Opera Design Brains Trust blog which has profiles of the people involved and sneak previews from July when rehearsals were going on and the building was being prepared.
Reviews
Photos
I went to the full dress rehearsal of Birmingham Opera Company’s King Idomeneo on Sunday night and loved it. What’s not to like about an abandoned factory stuffed with shipping containers, opera singers, dirt and orange trees?
Anyway, I have two tickets for tonight’s proper opening show to give away to the first person who shouts up for them in the comments.
Here are some guidelines:
- No-one associated with CiB (that includes Creative Republic types) can claim the tickets
- First to claim the tickets in the comments wins
- But feel free to stake a claim after the first post, just in case (see below)
- I need to give your real name to the ticket-giving people. If you post under a pseudonym then remember to use a real email address. If I you don’t reply to a confirmatory email quick enough and/or I think you’re messing about I’ll work my way down the list of commenters
- Tickets are to be collected on the door no later than 6.30pm today, 12 August 2008 – don’t claim them if you can’t make it (it sounds obvious but…)
- My decision on anything and everything is final
If whoever goes would be good enough to blog about the show or send me a review to post on CiB that’d be great. Not essential or anything but it’d be nice.
If you don’t win the tickets then maybe consider buying one and going along anyway. You’re not likely to get the chance to see anything like this for a while.
Finally, the Birmingham Post’s photographer was there on Sunday so you can see some pics to get an idea of what it was all about. There’s more info in my last post about it and on the Birmingham Opera Company website.
Plenty more information has come out since my last post about Birmingham Opera Company‘s forthcoming production of Mozart’s King Idomeneo.
Firstly, the first performance will be on 12 August but there’s a free dress rehearsal taking place on Sunday 10 August at 7pm. If you’d like to go down to that then email boxoffice@birminghamopera.org.uk to reserve your place.
The production will be a walkabout affair allowing the audience to ‘move with the action around the performance space’. Comfy shoes are recommended because it’s a 3 hour performance (with interval).
The venue is an abandoned rubber factory just off Ladywood Middleway (directions are here). Here’s what the place looked like a little while ago:
The Birmingham Opera Design Trust blog has profiles of the people involved in bringing this production to life as well as the odd tidbit about how things are coming together and is worth a read.
More info on the perfomance is available on the Birmingham Opera Company website and you can buy tickets through the REP’s booking system. Finally, here’s the flyer:
The Birmingham Opera Company, which was faced with cuts to its funding not so long ago, will return to the stage next month with a production of Mozart’s Idomeneo.
As it says on the website:
We don’t have an opera house and we don’t work in conventional theatres. We conjure our theatres out of spaces used for other purposes or maybe just abandoned
Not arf. This time they’ve taken over the empty Sherborne Rubber Factory building just off Ladywood Middleway (map here).
There are a few details on the Birmingham Opera Company site but there’s more to come soon. Although it does say performances will be roughly every other day between 12 and 23 August and tickets will be on sale soon.
Head nod to the Audiences Central blog.
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.
