WASHINGTON NATIONAL OPERA BLOG:

http://www.metoperafamily.org/operanews/issue/article.aspx?id=4883&issueID=250

BIRMINGHAM  OPERA COMPANY BLOG:

Saturday 19th July 2008

At the moment I’m in Birmingham, rehearsing my third production with the remarkable Birmingham Opera Company. This company, the product of Graham Vick’s artistic vision, began life as City of Birmingham Touring Opera, touring small-scale productions  around the UK, often in reduced orchestrations by the composer Jonathan Dove. Productions were always sung in English, and great emphasis was placed on the vivid and communicative delivery of the text. In 2001, the company was reborn as Birmingham Opera Company, and instead of touring, each year Graham has directed one large-scale production in a different space in Birmingham. All productions are still sung in English, but in the last few years full orchestra has been used, and a large amateur chorus and an equally large troupe of actors have come to play an increasingly important role in the shows. 2001 was Wozzeck; in 2002 I conducted Fidelio in a huge tent next to Villa Park, complete with underground dungeons; in 2003 came Candide in a disused car factory in Digbeth; in 2004 a series of smaller-scale explorations of Monteverdi’s work led to Ulysses Comes Home in an abandoned ice-rink in 2005; in 2006 I conducted He Had It Coming (aka Don Giovanni) in a derelict bank near Symphony Hall; 2007 was La Traviata in the huge National Indoor Arena; and now we’re in the former Sherborne Rubber Factory on the canal in Ladywood rehearsing Mozart’s King Idomeneo.

Looking at the list of past productions, it’s striking that Graham likes to take on the greatest operas: by taking these pieces out of their usual home (the opera house) and into new surroundings, these masterpieces reveal unexpected qualities. A word that always occurs to me when I think of the work here in Birmingham is UNCOMPROMISING: performers and audience have no choice but to engage with these pieces on a serious level, with none of the complacency that often creeps into International Opera, with its star-system, corporate entertainment facilities, and huge budgets. Graham and I both also work in international opera: indeed this year we’ve both done productions with Placido Domingo, which is about as glamorous as it gets. But we both come to work in Birmingham because we want to,  because it’s inspiring, and because we learn so much here about the operatic masterpieces that we thought were familiar. I “learnt” Idomeneo as Staff Conductor at San Franicsco Opera in 1999. I was the understudy conductor, and rehearsed with an internationally famous group of singers who had sung their roles all over the world. After that experience, my view of the piece was the conventional one - wonderful music, with the young Mozart operating at a phenomenally high level of musical inspiration; but what a shame about the clunky libretto, with its conventional opera seria apparatus, dreary long-windedness,  and clunky plot-twists! Now, I’m not so sure - but more on that later . . . .

We’ve already been in Birmingham since the end of June. Most of the first two weeks were sent sitting around a table, listening to the singers. This was the time to grapple initially with the material, to begin to establish tempi and musical character, to refine the translation, to discuss the dramatic situations . . . .  Only now, in the third week, have we been putting things literally “on their feet”. Meanwhile, the chorus have been practicing their music, the actors have been exploring the themes of the piece in improvisations and inventions, the design team have been building models and choosing materials, and the huge main factory space has gone from being an abandoned mess of old rubber and industrial remains, to a serenely empty open space, to a new and startling theatrical environment (I don’t want to give too much away about this aspect of the event ! ! ).