Thursday saw me spending a night at the opera, but since this was a performance by the Birmingham Opera Company it wasn’t what you might expect from a night at the opera. For a start it took place in a disused warehouse in the district of Ladywood, not an area renowned for its artistic vibrancy. Here’s the site from the air:
After being greeted by the huge mural shown above and entertained by a dance performance overlooking the canal and wasteland we were shepherded into relatively small room where we crowded around bags of rotting oranges giving of a pungent, heady scent the reminded me of certain Peter Greenaway films while a couple of thugs in butchers aprons strode around menacingly. Suddenly they grabbed a guy and dragged him through the double doors. We followed and found ourselves in another world.
I don’t want to spoil it for you but, to be honest, I don’t think my words can spoil it. Warehouses are massive at the best of times but this one was sculpted using 2,500 tonnes of earth into a rolling landscape around which we were allowed to roam, though the chorus did guide us to suitable spots. Here’s a sneaky photo I took while perched at the top of “the hill”.
And then the opera commenced. I have no idea what the story was. Even reading the Wikipedia summary has left me none the wiser, but it didn’t matter really. What mattered was the spectacle. No, what really mattered was being utterly immersed in the spectacle. The set design was such that the space was enormous yet oddly intimate and the acoustics were remarkably good, possibly dampened by the ocean of soil, giving a clarity to the soloists and power to the chorus. Unlike the echoey NIA where I saw their performance of La Traviata last year this warehouse, with it’s rusty pillars and pealing paint, was perfect.
Birmingham Opera take the concept of “community engagement” to commendable extremes, using members of the public to make up the cast but making sure the performance is professional to an international standard, and then plopping the end result in an environment that opera has probably never been seen in before. The effect, I suspect, is that no-one knows what to expect from first-timers to hardcore opera buffs.
It’s worth noting that Birmingham Opera were threatened with losing their Arts Council funding eight months ago without which they wouldn’t be able to do this sort of work. When they were saved at the 11th hour they obviously had something to prove. With this performance I’d say they’ve proved it in spades.
Pun not intended.
CiB is doing the Collective Memory thing with links to reviews by people who actually understood what was going on. The show continues on August 16, 18, 20, 22 and 23rd, tickets are well worth £17.50 and I highly recommend you give it a go. I might even go again myself. Here’s the flyer.
0 Comments on “Birmingham Opera’s King Idomeneo”