Birmingham Opera Company’s 2014 production of Modest Musorgsky’s KHOVANSKYGATE: A National Enquiry, directed by Graham Vick, was named Best New Production at this year’s International Opera Awards.
Birmingham Opera Company won out over productions from Zurich Opera, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Dutch National Opera, the English National Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York to take home the award.
Staged in a 60m x 40m “Big Top” in Birmingham’s Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham Opera Company’sKhovanskygate followed the huge success of their ground-breaking and award-winning production of Stockhausen’s Mittwoch Aus Licht in 2012.
KHOVANSKYGATE: A National Enquiry was performed with Vick’s own company, a cast of international soloists, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Children’s Chorus and over 200 volunteers from Birmingham.
Birmingham Opera Company’s most recent production was Michael Tippett’s The Ice Break, directed by Graham Vick and staged in a disused warehouse in Birmingham, which opened to great public and critical acclaim in April 2015.
The run of The Ice Break was accompanied by Breaking The Ice, a programme of screenings, exhibitions, concerts, lectures and performances organised in Birmingham to complement the themes of the opera. One highlight was ‘Breaking the Ice: A National Symposium on opera, art and social responsibility’, curated by Oliver Soden and featuring David Edgar, Andrew Gourlay, Mischa Scorer, Graham Vick and others.
The International Opera Awards were founded in 2013 by Harry Hyman and John Allison, Editor of Opera Magazine. The aims of the awards are to provide bursaries for emerging opera talent and to celebrate excellence in the world of opera.
The full list of nominees for Best New Production was as follows:
- Alcina, Zurich Opera
- Ariodante, Aix-en-Provence
- Gurrelieder, DNO
- Benvenuto Cellini, English National Opera
- Khovanskygate, Birmingham Opera Company
- Prince Igor, Metropolitan Opera
KHOVANSKYGATE: A National Enquiry was performed in a new translation by Max Hoehn. It was designed by Samal Blak and Stuart Stratford conducted. Paul Nilon sang The Scribbler, Eric Greene sang Prince Ivan Khovansky, with Keel Watson as Dosifey, Stephanie Corley as Emma and Claudia Huckle as Marfa.
Graham Vick’s other recent productions for Birmingham Opera Company include The Ice Break, Life is a Dream, Othello, which was broadcast on BBC Television, King Idomeneo, La Traviata and Mozart’s He Had It Coming.
Birmingham Opera Company’s triumphant 2012 staging of Stockhausen’s Mittwoch aus Licht, often previously thought to be unstageable, received public and critical acclaim. Featuring camels, a floating orchestra and a string quartet performing from helicopters, it won the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Opera and Music Theatre and was nominated in the World Premiere category at the inaugural International Opera Awards.