1 October 2020

Birmingham Opera Company to present Wagner's RhineGold Summer 2021

Today we launch our next bold mission; Wagner's RhineGold with an international cast and local volunteer performers led by Artistic Director Graham Vick and newly appointed Music Director Alpesh Chauhan in August 2021. And, as ever, it is opera for our times. 

The Lord of the Gods, maker of laws is in trouble. To shore up his own delusional ambitions and hang on to the Gods' fading glory he chooses to break the very law which holds all races in balance. Mother Nature warns that greed for power will bring its own destruction. No-one listens. 

Well known for presenting work in our home city's abandoned buildings, sometimes a factory, a nightclub, an ice rink, this time the Rhine is canal-side in the 100,000 sq ft The Tubeworks on Icknield Port Loop. Performed in a disused metalworks you'll get a unique Brummie take on the original myth of the forging of the golden ring. The audience will physically move with the action, experiencing the opera by being a part of it. 

Birmingham Opera Company's occupation of The Tubeworks in partnership with Urban Splash will launch a new life for the currently empty industrial site which is to be transformed as part of a brand new 43 acre urban development. The site once a powerhouse of the country's industrial revolution will embed the production directly within the city's past, highlight the present and look directly to the future. 

Graham Vick, Artistic Director, Birmingham Opera Company said: “I’m very excited that 30 years on from The Ring Saga we can now plan full scale Wagner in Birmingham - and cast Gods, Dwarves and Giants largely from the diverse group of singers whom we have been nurturing. This revolutionary political satire is also a great show piece for our new Music Director and for the marvellous CBSO. From the murky depths of the unconscious to self-serving promises of castles in the air and the voice of a planet facing its own destruction - it could’ve been written now.”

 Alpesh Chauhan, Music Director, Birmingham Opera Company said: “I'm delighted that we announce RhineGold as our next big project at Birmingham Opera Company  - which will be my first in the new Music Director title. We have a stellar international line-up of soloists, boosted by the incredible forces of the CBSO and the people of Birmingham who volunteer to be a part of our creativity, all alongside the BOC team which is a hugely exciting prospect to make this opera come to life in its immersive setting in Brum. This work is a staple of the core operatic repertoire, and I look forward to bringing Wagner's masterpiece to life alongside Graham Vick's imaginative brilliance.”

The cast, announced today will include: Eric Greene (Wotan); Brenden Gunnell (Loge); Chrystal E Williams (Fricka); Francesca Chiejina (Freia); Amar Muchhala (Froh); Byron Jackson (Donner); Gweneth-Ann Rand (Erda); Ross Ramgobin (Alberich); Keel Watson (Fasolt); Andrew Slater (Fafner).

More details including on sale and production dates will be announced in due course.