Birmingham Opera Company

{{Use British English|date=December 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}} {{Infobox organization | name = Birmingham Opera Company | bgcolor =  | fgcolor =  | image = Birmingham Opera Company Graham Vick coaches chorus.jpg | image_border = | image_size =  | image_alt =  | caption = Graham Vick coaches the chorus during a rehearsal | formation = {{Start date|1987}} | extinction =  | type =  | status =  | purpose =  | headquarters = | location = Birmingham, England | coordinates =  | region_served = | membership = | language =  | leader_title = Director | leader_name = Graham Vick | leader_title2 = Music Director | leader_name2 = Alpesh Chauhan | main_organ =  | parent_organization =  | affiliations =  | num_staff = | num_volunteers = | budget = | website = {{URL|https://www.birminghamopera.org.uk}} | remarks = }}

'''Birmingham Opera Company''' is a professional opera company based in Birmingham, England, that specialises in innovative and avant-garde productions of the operatic repertoire, often in unusual venues.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/apr/10/classicalmusicandopera.artsfeatures|title= Guardian Review of Candide|access-date=31 October 2007 | work=The Guardian | location=London | first=Andrew | last=Clements | date=10 April 2003}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2001/feb/25/featuresreview.review4|title= Guardian Review of Votzeck|access-date=31 October 2007 | work=The Guardian | location=London | date=25 February 2001 | first=Fiona | last=Maddocks}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article387620.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110517062315/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article387620.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=17 May 2011|title= Times Online Review of Ulysses Comes Home|accessdate=31 October 2007 | location=London | work=The Times | date=2 May 2005 | first=Robert | last=Thicknesse}}</ref>

==History== The company was founded by leading international opera director Graham Vick and conductor Simon Halsey as City of Birmingham Touring Opera in 1987, acquiring its current name in 2001. CBTO's public debut came in September 1987 with the production of ''Falstaff'' at the Cocks Moors Woods Leisure Centre in Brandwood. In 1989 City of Birmingham Touring Opera commissioned and performed Ravi Shankar's work of musical theatre ''Ghanashyam (A Broken Branch)'', which won the company's first Prudential Award for Arts; the 1990 production of Richard Wagner's ''Ring Saga'', adapted for performance over two nights and with a reduced orchestra of eighteen musicians, won the second.<ref name=Grimley>{{cite web | url=http://www.birminghampost.net/life-leisure-birmingham-guide/birmingham-culture/birmingham-ballet-opera/2008/01/04/birmingham-opera-boss-blasts-funding-cut-65233-20313542/ | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130221082501/http://www.birminghampost.net/life-leisure-birmingham-guide/birmingham-culture/birmingham-ballet-opera/2008/01/04/birmingham-opera-boss-blasts-funding-cut-65233-20313542/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=21 February 2013 | title=Birmingham Post article on funding cuts to Birmingham Opera | accessdate=27 September 2012 | work=Birmingham Post | location=Birmingham | first=Terry | last=Grimley | date=4 January 2008 }}</ref> Birmingham Opera Company has also won the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Music for its 2001 production of Berg's ''Wozzeck'' in a derelict warehouse in Ladywood, and a South Bank Show Award for its 2002 production of ''Fidelio''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rpsmusicawards.com/2007/winners/pastwinners?page=2007/winners/pastwinners/pastaudiencedevelop.html|title=Past RPS Award Winners|accessdate=31 October 2007}}</ref>

While City of Birmingham Touring Opera's works were performed nationwide and internationally, Birmingham Opera Company has since 2001 produced shows on an annual basis, working with large numbers of volunteers from local communities alongside professional musicians and performers. The company is also notable for its use of unconventional locations for its productions, ranging from a large tent in Aston Park for 2002's ''Fidelio'', the former Municipal Bank on Broad Street for ''He Had It Coming'' (based on Mozart's ''Don Giovanni'') in 2007, and most recently the Argyle Works, a disused chemical works in Digbeth. On a much larger scale, however, the company also performed Verdi's ''La traviata'' to an audience of almost 10,000 people at the National Indoor Arena in 2007.<ref name=Grimley />

Several of Birmingham Opera Company's productions have been televised on the BBC, including the 2002 production of ''Fidelio'' broadcast live on BBC Four, and a film version of Verdi's ''Othello'' broadcast in 2011 alongside an hour-long documentary, "Verdi: The Director's Cut", featuring Graham Vick's work. ''Othello'' was furthermore featured on BBC Four's "Best of European Opera 2010", broadcast on Christmas Day 2010.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wyq33|title= BBC 'Best of European Opera 2010'|access-date=27 September 2012}}</ref> In 2004 the Opera Company joined forces with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in a presentation of Benjamin Britten's ''Curlew River'' on the BBC Proms, which was also later televised on BBC Four.

Birmingham Opera has a long history of collaboration with contemporary British composer Jonathan Dove, including commissioning and performing Dove's composition ''Life is a Dream'' in March 2012, an opera in three acts with the libretto written by Alasdair Middleton and based on the play of the same name by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. Dove has also created new arrangements of classic works for the company, including 1988's ''Falstaff'', 1990's ''Ring Saga'' and 1991's ''La bohème''.

On 22 August 2012 the Company performed the world premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen's ''Mittwoch aus Licht'', the last opera of the ''Licht'' cycle to be staged, as part of the London 2012 Festival. The production featured the Elysian Quartet performing the famously complex ''Helicopter String Quartet'', with BBC Radio 1's DJ Nihal acting as the moderator (a role previously undertaken by Stockhausen himself).<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/aug/23/karlheinz-stockhausen-mittwoch-aus-licht-birmingham|title= Guardian Review of Mittwoch aus Licht|accessdate=27 September 2012 | work=The Guardian | location=London | first=Andrew | last=Clements | date=23 August 2010}}</ref> The production later went on to win the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Opera and Music Theatre.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.birminghamopera.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=154:mittwoch-wins-top-award&catid=24:latest-news&Itemid=31&Itemid=0|title=Birmingham Opera Company|accessdate=19 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131010035458/http://birminghamopera.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=154:mittwoch-wins-top-award&catid=24:latest-news&Itemid=31&Itemid=0|archive-date=10 October 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2014 Birmingham Opera Company produced Musorgsky's Khovanskygate: A National Enquiry ( Khovanschina) in a big top "The Freedom Tent"in Cannon Hill Park and was awarded the International Opera Award 2015 for Best New Production, beating off competition from around the world and other shortlisted companies such as Metropolitan Opera, New York.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.operaawards.org/archive/2015/|title=2015|date=30 August 2016|website=Opera Awards}}</ref>

Birmingham Opera Company has also been a finalist in numerous awards recognising their exceptional record in engaging new audiences and their ground breaking productions- The International Opera Award for World Premiere 2013 ( Mittwoch as Licht), the RPS Award for Audiences and Engagement 2015 (Khovanskygate), 2016 ( The Ice Break) and 2017(Dido and Aeneas #DnA) and The International Opera Awards 2016 in two categories for Rediscovered Work and Accessibiity for Michael Tippett's The Ice Break.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.vbpr.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/IOA-2016-shortlist-press-release-FINAL.pdf|title=International Opera Awards 2016 Shortlist Revealed|access-date=30 May 2017|archive-date=6 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306044106/http://www.vbpr.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/IOA-2016-shortlist-press-release-FINAL.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> and The South Bank Show Sky Arts Award for Opera 2015 <ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.atvtoday.co.uk/67083-sky/ |title=South Bank Sky Arts 2015 Award nominees announced |date=2015-04-10 |access-date=2019-03-03 |language=en-US |archive-date=6 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306044023/http://www.atvtoday.co.uk/67083-sky/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 2016 Artistic Director Graham Vick was awarded RPS Honorary Membership.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://royalphilharmonicsociety.org.uk/rps_today/news/graham_vicks_rps_speech |title=Graham Vick's RPS Speech |access-date=2019-03-03 |language=en}}</ref>

==Past productions== {| class="wikitable" ! Date ! Production ! Notes |- | align="right"| 2018 | ''Wake'' (Giorgio Battistelli) |- | align="right"| 2014 | ''Khovanskygate: A National Enquiry'' (Musorgsky) |- | align="right"| 2013 | ''Songs and Dances of Death'' (Musorgsky) | A collaboration with BBC Birmingham, BBC Academy |- | align="right"| 2012 | ''Mittwoch aus Licht'' (Stockhausen) | World premiere. Production commissioned by the London 2012 Festival. |- | align="right"| 2012 | ''Life is a Dream'' (Jonathan Dove) | World premiere. Opera commissioned by Birmingham Opera Company. |- | align="right"| 2010 | ''The Wedding'' (Stravinsky) | |- | align="right"| 2010 | ''A Man of Feeling'' (Stephen Oliver) | |- | align="right"| 2009 | ''Othello'' (Verdi) | Notably the first UK production to feature a black tenor in the title role.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/dec/13/othello-boc-rosenkavalier-aleksandar-madzar|title= Guardian Review of Othello|accessdate=27 September 2012 | work=The Guardian | location=London | first=Fiona | last=Maddocks | date=13 December 2009}}</ref> |- | align="right"| 2008 | ''King Idomeneo'' (Mozart) | |- | align="right"| 2007 | ''La traviata'' (Verdi) | |- | align="right"| 2006 | ''Ariadne Sells Out'' (Richard Strauss) | The Prologue from Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos. |- | align="right"| 2006<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/mar/18/classicalmusicandopera|title=He Had It Coming, 301 Broad St, Birmingham|first=Erica|last=Jeal|date=18 March 2006|website=The Guardian|accessdate=31 January 2018}}</ref> | ''He Had It Coming'' (Mozart) | Based on Mozart's ''Don Giovanni''. |- | align="right"| 2005 | ''Ulysses Comes Home'' (Monteverdi) | |- | align="right"| 2004 | ''Curlew River'' (Britten) | |- | align="right"| 2003–4 | ''Women Beware'' (Monteverdi) | |- | align="right"| 2003–4 | ''Rites of Spring'' (Monteverdi) | |- | align="right"| 2003–4 | ''Mortal Combat'' (Monteverdi) | |- | align="right"| 2003 | ''Candide'' (Bernstein) | |- | align="right"| 2002 | ''Fidelio'' (Beethoven) | |- | align="right"| 2001 | ''Votzeck'' (Berg) | |- |}

;City of Birmingham Touring Opera: *2000: ''Tobias and the Angel'' (Jonathan Dove) *2000: ''Pelléas and Mélisande'' (Debussy) *1999: ''The Two Widows'' (Smetana) *1998: ''The Adventures of Vixen Sharp-Ears'' (Janáček) *1997: ''The Church Parables'' (Britten) *1997: '' Macbeth'' (Verdi) *1995-6: ''Falstaff'' (Verdi) *1995: ''Chaka'' (Akin Euba) *1994: ''Silas Marner'' (Howard Goodall) *1994: ''Faust'' (Gounod) *1993: ''Les Boréades'' (Rameau) *1992: ''Zaide'' (Mozart) *1991: ''La bohème'' (Puccini) *1989–91: ''The Ring Saga'' (Wagner) *1990: ''Beauty & the Beast'' (Stephen Oliver) *1989: ''Ghanashyam (A Broken Branch)'' (Ravi Shankar) *1989: ''Peace'' (Carl Davis) *1988-9: ''The Magic Flute'' (Mozart) *1987-8: ''Falstaff'' (Verdi)

==External links== *[http://www.birminghamopera.org.uk Official website]

== References == {{reflist}}

Category:English opera companies Category:Culture in Birmingham, West Midlands Category:Musical groups established in 1987 Category:1987 establishments in England