City News

Birmingham’s iconic Bull sculpture has inspired a new opera song cycle, written by young people living in the city with support from Welsh National Opera.

What connections do young people make between their lives and environment today and an art form often associated with the past alone? The answers can be found in City Songs, an eclectic new song cycle developed by 200 primary school children from Birmingham schools, alongside artists from the internationally renowned Welsh National Opera.

Cardiff-based WNO has toured to Birmingham for nearly 40 years and considers the second largest city in the UK to be its second home. In 2007, that relationship is strengthened still further with a summer season of work that celebrates the Company’s grassroots in the Midlands. City Songs promises to be a very special event: a commission which gives voice to young peoples’ impressions of their city, captured in a variety of songs all inspired by local places and landmarks. The song cycle, supported by Mercers’ Charitable Foundation, is performed at Birmingham Hippodrome on Thursday 21 June by 200 young people, accompanied by the Orchestra of WNO and directed by Birmingham based director Orit Azaz. There is just one public performance at 7pm.

Earlier this year, school children from Rookery School, Handsworth, Cotteridge Primary School, Paganel Primary School, Selly Oak, and Bourneville Junior School, Bournville, began a series of site visits in the area, which they then used as source material to create the cycle in song writing workshops led by artists from WNO. They included the Bull Ring, the Jewellery Museum and Pen Museum, the Longbridge Car Plant, Bourneville Green, Lickey Hills and the city’s canals. In addition, young filmmakers from Reel Access, based at the Custard Factory, created film material to be incorporated into performances.

City Songs is the story of the city’s iconic Bull making a journey back into the future, stopping off at places which have a resonance for many local people, but also reflecting on issues concerning young people growing up in an urban environment today. What might seem to be the natural territory of rappers and indie bands is here translated into rich blend of musical styles under the guidance of composer Karen Wimhurst. City Songs will be performed by the acclaimed baritone Rodney Williams, who sings role of the Bull and 200 schoolchildren. Adrian Partington will conduct the Orchestra of WNO in the pit.

“City Songs is a remarkable achievement in many ways,” says Sarah Alexander, director of WNO MAX who has commissioned the song cycle. “For many participants, it will be the first time they have encountered opera and it often comes as a surprise that it’s not remotely old fashioned. It must also seem strange to think an opera song cycle can emerge from a trip on a canal, or a visit to the Longbridge Car Plant, but the fact of the matter is opera does touch on real lives. It can translate emotion and place into all kinds of wonderful things, including this surreal journey of a Bull who must be guided around the city by the Chorus."

Stuart Griffiths, Chief Executive, Birmingham Hippodrome, says: “The acclaimed WNO has been visiting Birmingham Hippodrome for nearly 40 years performing the very best in large scale opera. We are especially proud in Birmingham that WNO has chosen the theatre as the only venue outside their base in Cardiff to perform all of their repertoire. City Songs is an exciting and unique project that can only strengthen that relationship and build future audiences.”

John Fisher, General Director of WNO, adds: “City Songs is a great way of building partnerships with other artists and arts organisations based in the city and using these collaborations to create new material and build new audiences. We are delighted with the tremendous input from the local schools and the Birmingham Hippodrome.

“WNO wants to expand on this kind of partnership and offer up many more creative opportunities, as well as explore what is possible in a city that has for so long supported it.”