Save Our Opera Company

BIRMINGHAM OPERA COMPANY “COOLEST IN THE WORLD”

07-01-2008

Legendary Birmingham music mogul John Mostyn has launched a passionate defence of Birmingham Opera Company on The Stirrer Message Board. Mostyn – who’s worked with The Beat, Fine Young Cannibals and Ocean Colour Scene – describes them as “the coolest opera company in the world”. Here’s his post in full.

I would love to have seen La Traviata but I didn't as I was in it, along with 260 other Birmingham folk from every age group, ethnic group and profession that you can imagine.

I guess I'm in a rare position to comment on this as I've seen things from an Arts Council perspective when I was a board member of West Midlands Arts in the nineties.

I've produced large events like the Welcome Concert for Nelson Mandela at Symphony Hall, I can see things from a commercial perspective - artists I've managed have brought more than £30m into the local economy through success around the world and alongside the commercial I've always tried to work with and be involved with music that brings communities together and makes something special happen.

I've seen some of the best productions and artists in the world but when, in 2003 I was invited along to Birmingham Opera's production of Candide in Digbeth I saw, to my amazement, what was for me the best production of any sort that I'd seen in my life.

The innovation, the commitment of the local singers and actors, the artistic direction and the pure spirit of the piece literally shifted my perception of what can be achieved musically and dramatically.

Since that night (after going back to see it again the next night) I've taken every opportunity that I can to see the company's productions and to introduce doubting friends to the joys of a BOC production and it's never failed to impress and inspire them.

When I heard of the production due at the NIA of La Traviata I saw my chance and applied to sing in the chorus. I'm an OK singer of old pop standards but I'd never attempted anything like this and apart from the singing challenge I wanted to learn from these people from the inside, I wanted to see first hand from right in the middle of it all how productions as rare and good as this are put together and I certainly did.

I won't go into the detail of how we were trained and moulded into a coherent unit but just as I'd imagined it was clever stuff delivered by very clever, talented people but what did surprise me was the utter lack of pomposity or diva-ish behaviour from anyone.

The singing stars of the production would join us for rehearsals and workouts, drink tea and chat with us during the breaks. It took me a while to simply believe that here were nearly 300 people as diverse as we were but all sharing in one single aim - to put on the best production possible and to help each other do it.

As a child of the 50's I've been lucky enough never to be in the army but in spirit I think this was as close as I'll ever get. We weren't conscripts we all wanted to be there but the way that those who had worked with the company before helped the first timers, the way the young used their strength to help the older and the older used their experience to help
the younger just left me glad to be alive at the end of every rehearsal.

As things turned out I was moved from the singers to the actors which was something I'd never done before in my life but apart from the quality of it's productions that is what BOC is about - having regular people find new skills.

I ended up with a particularly tricky bit at the end of the opera - for me anyway and I flunked it big time at the dress rehearsal and wanted the world to swallow me up for the next two days but at the first performance I nearly got it and on the second and last night I absolutely nailed it.

Overcoming that fear of screwing up in front of 6,000 people was a life lesson that you just can't buy. I came off that last night feeling as good as Johnny Wilkinson did when he took the winning kick for England.

A couple of months of feeling good about it, feeling good about the City, bumping into fellow performers and having that rapport that comes with a shared experience and then BANG!

The news that this particular jewel in the City's arts and humanities crown is to be tossed away. It took a few weeks to really sink in and to try to understand what had happened. Well it's sunk in but I still don't understand what's happened.

It's a national problem. The Arts Council England has had it's biggest review of funded bodies in it's 60 years of existence and 200 arts groups who were considered worthy of funding last month aren't this month. My heart goes out to others, particularly the Northcott Theatre in Exeter and the Bristol Old Vic and closer to home the Derby Playhouse but why?

I've searched and searched to see what the logic is behind this national cull. 200 groups cut. 80 new groups to be funded for the first time and increases in funding for others so it's not about saving money.

I understand from local news that the Regional Arts Board has told BOC that it's not happy with it's business model! It doesn't like the fact that BOC only has two main funders BCC and the Arts Council, it wants it to have a third stream of funding - well IT DOES.

It's the 300 of us who if we charged for our time would bill at £180,000 for the La Traviata rehearsals and performances alone. It's the good will that Graham Vick creates for the company and the city around the world that leads to Verona saying "Yep, you can borrow our set for nothing" that's another £200k.

It's the enlightened support of the Birmingham Post which at my guess could be billed at easily another £100k. These might not be figures that appear in the accounts but they are as real as the pound notes and in a way more valuable because they won't change in a difficult economic climate.

In terms of leverage BOC returns more per pound spent on it than any other arts organisation in the area and this must be taken into account at the review of this decision by the Arts Council later this month.

I'm sympathetic to the Regional Arts Board's position, they have a national master who has called for some changes that they have to respond to and partners who they have to keep happy, it's not an easy spot but some things have to be fought for at a regional level by the Regional Arts Board and the Birmingham Opera Company is one of them.

BOC might not fit the perfect business model that the Regional Arts Board would like to see but the results are worth it and that's how it must be measured - on the results not the process otherwise the London based bureaucrats with their unexplainable demand for changes will have won the day.

Sally Luton - chief executive of the Regional Arts Board is a clever player and it's not beyond her and her board to figure a way out of this potential disaster and it's not project funding.

This company deserves to be securely funded so that they can just get on with the brilliant job that they do and I urge the Regional Arts Board from every fibre of my being for the sake of every Brummie who has enjoyed BOC to date and the generations to enjoy it to come to do the right thing and rescind this decision.

I would also like on behalf of the casts and audiences of BOC productions past to say sorry about this to Graham Vick and Jean Nicholson. You are both so admired in the City for the way that you have inspired so many of us and we hope that normal business may soon be resumed and we can all get on with enjoying the coolest opera company in the world, right here in Brum.

For more on John Mostyn click here http://web.mac.com/mostyn/iWeb/JohnMostyn/home.html

For background on the Birmingham Opera Company story, click here

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