Birmingham Opera Company heads back to the factory
But early last year it found itself fighting for its life when the Arts Council announced its was cutting its grant as part of a controversial spending review. Disaster was ultimately averted with the help of some influential friends in London. So what is the state of BOC’s health now?
“The company’s good actually,” says Jean. “We seem to have repaired well our relations with the Arts Council, and Idomeneo went well last year. That was the first production after all that happened and it helped to consolidate things, I think. We feel more confident about the role that we play, that’s clarified a bit more.”
The Arts Council had questioned how much it was getting for its money, and the element of public participation, which makes direct comparisons with other opera companies difficult, has been further developed.
“This particular project is a bit of an iceberg, really,” says Jean. “There are seven performances, which is quite a lot for a big show like Othello, but we’ve been working for months on different strands. For example, as part of the People Dancing programme for the Cultural Olympiad, we’ve been involved with running a series of dance-based development projects.
“There’s an interesting combination of different dance traditions which will come into play in a big ballet. We’ve adopted the ballet into the opera in a traditional way but it won’t be traditional dance, that’s for sure.
“We also got some additional money under an adult learning programme. There’s quite a strong learning programme here in an informal way, so that people walk away with more than they arrive with in terms of know-how.”
One new development for Othello is the creation of a children’s chorus.
“It’s the first time we’ve done it, and we’ve been working with 28 eight-year-olds from three schools in Ladywood,” Jean explains. “That’s been six months’ work, because there isn’t a tradition of that kind of chorus singing in that way. The schools have been really fantastic and the children, we hope, will have a good time.
“I hope we will be able to encourage them to do more singing and point them in the direction of other opportunities. The CBSO, for example, has many children’s choruses and it would be good if we could feed some of these children through. If you enjoyed this there’s tons of opportunities in Birmingham.”
Jean joined the company in 2000, having previously been director of the Opera and Music Theatre Forum, an umbrella organisation for smaller companies.
‘‘I joined the company when it was still CBTO, and I was part of the re-think about what kind of an opera company we should be. So it’s an interesting point from which to look back and reflect as to why we felt that it was time to change the approach. And it was a good move, actually, because this site-specific and involvement model has been really productive.
“I don’t think this is necessarily the way we will always do it, but at the time it made sense to do it this way to reach these audiences. We’re not perfect, but our audience profile is much lower in age than a lot of other classical music-based organisations, and we have a good mix.”
* Birmingham Opera Company presents Verdi’s Othello at Argyle Works, Great Barr Street, Birmingham B9 4EX on December 5, 7, 9, 12, 14, 17, 19 at 7.15pm. Tickets: £17.50/£10 concessions (box office 08444 77 1000. or online at www.ticketweb.co.uk. www.birminghamopera.org.uk
