Wednesday evening. Inside a giant, blue Big Top where the Wholesale Markets used to be, Brummies of all ages, backgrounds and abilities are throwing off their inhibitions and bonding with people who just a few weeks ago were total strangers.

They’re being encouraged to dig deep and draw out life experiences of hopelessness to exhilaration and throw themselves with complete abandon into scenes of high drama whose intertwining storyline of Somewhere Today and Nowhere Tomorrow and theme of intergalactic love, they’re still working out. It’s the human struggle of everyday life that underpins this new production, New Year, by Birmingham Opera Company whose ethos is to make opera relevant and accessible to everyone by making the whole city its opera house and by charging as little as £5 for a ticket.

In just under two weeks, led by legendary opera director, Keith Warner and BOC Music Director, Alpesh Chauhan OBE, the volunteer actors and chorus will be accompanying an international cast of eight professional soloists and one dancer drawn from the UK, USA, South Africa and Italy and the full City of Birmingham Orchestra (CBSO) for the premiere of a new production of Michael Tippett’s New Year.  Among the hundreds of spectators on opening night, Sunday 7th July 2024, they won’t just be cheered on by sympathetic audience of friends and family but will undergo the scrutiny of some of the country’s top music critics.

The opera, written and premiered in Houston, Texas, in 1989, and performed for a short run at Glyndebourne in 1990 followed by a UK tour hasn’t been staged since. Like Stockhausen’s Mittwoch Aus Licht, which had never been performed in its entirety until BOC’s staging for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad which brought global audiences into the city, it’s a challenging project that will once again bring the city into the artistic spotlight.

General Director, Richard Willacy says Birmingham Opera Company has been given permission to adapt sections of the work and, although the music remains intact, the team will aim to bring a 21st century authenticity to the characters.  He adds “Our work is as ever about the world in which we live and Michael Tippett was perhaps the first major British Composer to attempt to draw modern urban life in all its diversity into the world of classical opera. The work musically is massively eclectic, drawing on ska, jazz, and more traditional western classical music. There’s even a rumour that he wanted The Communards to sing one of the parts! It was all about breaking down barriers.”

Working with BOC as Dramaturg to help ensure that the language in the libretto makes sense for modern audiences is Leicester based poet, Ty’rone Haughton, who also works in the social care sector as an advocate and delivering training. As racial identity and the foster care system are key themes of New Year, his understanding and professional experience mean that he can make language edits to ensure that the libretto is relevant and rooted truthfully in the experience of the characters.

For the moment, the hundred plus volunteers, whose participation has involved no audition process, are being put through their paces as actors and chorus singers, one scene at a time.  Chorus Director, Mariana Rosas from Argentina who has made Birmingham her home and whose boundless energy, warmth and exuberance is key to keeping them buoyant, on time and in tune. They respond with enthusiasm, adulation even.

19 year old heavy metal fan, Ellie Shipman from Rednal, who’s never been to an opera, let alone sung in one said “it’s not really what I expected. I thought we’d be just standing in a line on the side, singing. But this is mad. I love it, love being part of a group, even the acting which I’ve never done before. The music gets stuck in your head, like an ear worm and when you break for a drink, you find yourself humming opera themes together with other people – it makes you feel bright and quite giddy.”  Fresh from the Download Festival and more of a fan of Metallica, Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath, she has sung pop hits like Staying Alive and Walking on Sunshine at the rehearsals for Northfield Acapella Choir of which she’s a member, but a workshop run by BOC earlier in the year persuaded her to try it out and she’s hooked.

Primary school teacher, Julie James, from Northfield is a regular volunteer with Birmingham Opera Company and this is her twelfth production, as an actor. She says that not only has she made lots of friends, but she’s picked up tricks and techniques for teaching her pupils at St Mary’s CE in Selly Oak including the warm-ups that precede every rehearsal that has everyone from 17 to 85, sure-footed or with a walking aid, dancing, yelling, whooping, spinning and generally getting into the groove.

Dr Joe Kai is a Professor of Primary Care Medicine at Nottingham University   who lives in Birmingham He was a volunteer in Othello in 2018 staged in a former industrial works in Digbeth.  He absolutely loved the experience, but long working hours meant he couldn’t commit to another production until now that he’s working part time. He said, “It’s not for the faint-hearted. I’m quite shy by nature but you’ve just get thrown into it with such a diverse group of people whom you’d otherwise never meet. We started off in a freezing cold neglected old bar under a railway arch. You may be roughing it for a few weeks but the challenge and experience of being mentored by Mariana who can bring together people of all abilities include those who have never sung before and can’t read music means you just keep wanting to come back. The transformation is quite unbelievable”

From celebrity in his own country, Ethiopia, to volunteer in this production of New Year, 42 year old  actor/director, Gashaw Zeleke, is now seeking asylum in the UK, while his wife and three children remain in hiding back home. As a star of theatre and television productions, President of the Theatre Arts Professionals Association "TAPA" and the president of Coalition of Civil Society organisations for Ethiopians "CoCSE", his campaigning against the government for its killing of innocent civilians led him to flee the country. In Birmingham since December 15, 2023 it was thanks to Alison  of BIRCH charity organisation that he was introduced to Birmingham Opera Company. He said “ I really wanted to do something with the arts  - it’s my profession and my life. I have found the whole experience wonderful, with everyone so friendly and I’ve learned so much. It’s a great model. If I am given status then it will be in the arts that I will want to work.”

For local emerging professional artists too, it’s an exciting journey. Two of BOCs newest chorus mentors are Victoria Harley and Mairi McGillivray post-graduates from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Victoria who has studied Vocal Operatic performance said she has sung Tippett before but wasn’t familiar with New Year. She said “What I sang before wasn’t this crazy. This is a crazy plot, crazy rhythms and crazy harmonies. It’s really fun and catchy and groovy in places with bass guitar and a ska section. Mairi who’s Scottish and is at the Conservatoire doing a Masters in Music and Vocal Performance says “The music is a challenge, quite difficult on the page, but as you’re singing it, chanting and doing vocal exercises, you learn it together. As chorus mentors they’ll lead the volunteers, helping to create an ultimate union of voices in time for the premiere on 7 July.

For Quinton-based Assistant Director, Nyasha Gudo, it’s a new experience too. Nyasha first got to know BOC through a directors’ school in 2019 and last year directed his first short opera, Leonard, for the company at the Jewellery Quarter Festival. He says “Working on such a huge scale is really challenging both in terms of people management and having to deal with so many moving pieces but where’s there’s challenge, there’s growth. It’s a fantastic opportunity.”

The breaking down of barriers between professionals and volunteers, experienced creatives and newcomers has always been a feature of the Birmingham Opera Company model established by Sir Graham Vick CBE more than 30 years ago. Many professional opera singers had their first professional break with BOC and in some cases, volunteer chorus members went on to study music and begin their journey into professional singing. Volunteer testimonials over the years have included phrases like confidence-boosting, life-changing, even life-saving.

Inside the Dream Tent, while rehearsals are in full flow, designer Nicky Shaw and her crew and wardrobe department are in the early stages of set building and costume fitting with rails of clothes and racks of shoes not revealing too much at this stage.  Two large platforms have been erected and on the sidelines there’s a grand piano and a conductor’s platform where the music team led by 34 year old Birmingham born, Alpesh Chauhan OBE are gathered. Assistant Conductor, Harry Lai, says he can’t believe his luck.  He’s been studying music in the UK from his native Hong Kong for the last seven years, and he says to be working with Alpesh and Keith is a dream come true.  Having studied music at Durham University, he’s now in his first year of Orchestral Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music where Alpesh studied and from where he launched his stellar international career.

The Dream Tent stands just behind the Bullring, on the 42 acre ‘Smithfield’ site, now cleared for redevelopment by Lendlease. It’s the perfect urban setting for a 21st century retelling and restaging of an opera that was somewhat ahead of its time. Like many award-winning BOC productions that have gone before it, Tippett’s The Ice Break, 2015  being one,  the experience  for first time opera goers to New Year will be a far cry from the comfort of a seat in a theatre or opera house where they simply observe the performers. They will be right in the heart of the main action, moving around the set and often finding themselves directly next to the incredible (un-microphoned) voice of a soprano, tenor or baritone.

Tickets for this intergalactic New Year celebration are now on sale here.