Birmingham Opera Company: you know the form.
The barely-there publicity, the semi-derelict warehouse venues, the portaloos鈥 But then it starts.
Milling crowds turn into actors; the orchestra surges, and in an instant, you find yourself engulfed in a pushing, shoving, swirling mass of choral singing. The heart revs, and you鈥檙e dragged in and under. It鈥檚 overwhelming. In those moments, it feels like there鈥檚 no other possible way to experience opera.
We鈥檙e used to Graham Vick鈥檚 company achieving the impossible: but this production of Tippett鈥檚 1977 opera The Ice Break 鈥 only the second production in the 海角视频 鈥 is arguably a greater artistic achievement even than Stockhausen鈥檚 Mittwoch in 2012.
To take an opera that鈥檚 effectively been written off; to look past superficial criticism (an electric guitar and a couple of 鈥渇**ks鈥: so what?), to recognise a work filled with frighteningly contemporary ideas and emotions (one whose Mussorgsky-like use of the chorus makes it perfect for BOC鈥檚 approach) and then to give it so involving and urgent a production, demands heroic insight and belief.
What hit home first was Tippett鈥檚 score: dark, taut, grippingly dramatic, lightened by delicate (but never sentimental) moments of fantasy and grace.
The CBSO under Andrew Gourlay played their socks off in what (whether they realise it or not) will probably be their most artistically significant performance this year.
The amateur chorus, trained by Jonathan Laird, wasn鈥檛 quite as precise 鈥 but any rough edges in their ferociously difficult music simply added to the sense of elemental energy crucial to Tippett鈥檚 riot scenes. They were 鈥 just as Tippett would have wanted - a force of nature.
There were problems. In BOC鈥檚 promenade format (designer Stuart Nunn decked out the warehouse as an airport lounge), it鈥檚 the luck of the draw whether or not you can see the action at any given time. Audibility was an issue.
But we were close enough to sense the commanding physicality of Ta鈥檜 Pupu鈥檃 as the Muhammad Ali-like Olympion 鈥 a plausible figurehead for the mob 鈥 and feel the tenderness between Andrew Slater鈥檚 weary dissident Lev and Nadine Benjamin as his wife Nadia: affecting performances, sung more expressively than you鈥檇 think possible in so large a space.
Ross Ramgobin embodied the troubling role of Lev鈥檚 son Yuri with fierce conviction; and Chrystal E Williams鈥 heartfelt Act 2 monologue may in its quiet way have been the evening鈥檚 musical high point.
But the night belonged to the entire company: and above all, to Tippett himself.
The final scene set a shard of hope against a world quickly filling with darkness: protestors, hippy-dippy escapists, ISIS killers. If Tippett鈥檚 drama fell flat as a Cold War parable in 1977, 38 years later 鈥 in Vick鈥檚 production 鈥 it seems to throw out more and bigger questions than we鈥檙e able to answer.
I鈥檓 just going to say it: The Ice Break is a masterpiece and this production strikes me as the greatest thing that Birmingham Opera Company has yet done.
The Ice Break is staged until April 9 at the B12 Warehouse in Charles Henry Street, Digbeth.
