Chris Morley talks to the principal conductor of Birmingham Royal Ballet about the demands of a modern touring company.
It’s a tricky life, juggling the activities of a major ballet company and its conductors, as Paul Murphy, principal conductor of Birmingham Royal Ballet told me last month – just before BRB was setting out on tour for a fortnight, taking its new acclaimed production of Cinderella to Salford and Plymouth.
“I combine this job with a freelance career, and that involves recently a collaboration with the National Ballet of Japan, of which David Bintley has also become director,’’ he explains.
“It’s not like just preparing for a concert, flying in and out for a few days. Because of rehearsals and performance runs it can take up to three weeks for a ballet tour.
“I think Birmingham Royal Ballet is the country’s foremost touring ballet company, so the financial cuts are making an impact on the company. But we also have foreign touring. There’s been a major foreign tour every year.
“In 2011 Birmingham Royal Ballet will be at the Hong Kong Festival, and then in Japan for three weeks in May. But I’m also going to be in Japan with the National Ballet just before that, so I’m actually going to be away for six weeks in May, early June. It’s a busy year touring for me personally.”
We go on to discuss the impact of the current financial situation upon box-office returns, and the actual cost of touring. BRB is actually cutting down its touring schedule. Similarly Welsh National Opera is this year performing only four shows a week in Birmingham instead of five.
“If you think of the sheer mechanics of what we bring on tour,” Paul continues. “Apart from ourselves and an orchestra, there’s the set alone which is a massive undertaking. So it’s costly, but it’s our identity, it’s what we do, and we need to ensure that it carries on.”
I have been happy in reviews to praise the incredible orchestra of Birmingham Royal Ballet, the BRB Sinfonia, in its own right. Its Stravinsky Rite of Spring a few years ago was just one example of an astonishing tour de force. Are the players on permanent contract, like the CBSO?
“No. We offer our core players 35 weeks guaranteed work. We actually employ on that basis eight first violins, six second violins, four violas, four cellos, two basses; also double woodwind, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, harp and percussion (two players there, that is).
“But as you will well know, many scores like The Rite of Spring call for quite a vast array of players, so we regularly bolster that intake with extra players.
“In Birmingham, for example, we have a standard orchestral string section, because it’s quite a big pit. We further expand it if we play in London, at the Coliseum or the Royal Opera House.
“On tour, on regional touring, particularly with venues like Plymouth, or Sunderland, which we visit regularly, we have to play with our contracted size, because there isn’t the space. But we will obviously use the full complement of woodwind and brass players as required by the score.
“The orchestra are astonishingly flexible, and brilliant at accompanying dance. One of their greatest strengths is their incredible flexibility in adapting to different musical styles. There have been so many different things written for ballet, apart from the classics, and like any British orchestra there are massive time-constraints, so they’ve learnt to be incredibly fast at picking things up.
“The orchestra are an essential part of the company’s life-force, if you like, but they’re incredibly skilled in what they do.”
On Friday they emerge from the Hippodrome pit and perform out in the open on the splendid stage of Symphony Hall. How often do they get the chance to play like pit ponies liberated into the sunshine?
