Performing Year
What you can expect as a member
Currently, the year is split into three sections. The Spring Concerts, usually based around two or three venues in and around Birmingham, with other venues added as we are asked. After the Spring concerts, we start rehearsals for the main Opera to be performed in the Winter. Chorus and Principals are asked to work on their scores in their own time between rehearsals, with the addition of Chorus ‘learning cassettes’ for those who request them. After the show, we begin practising for the Christmas concerts, again, usually in and around Birmingham. These are wonderful, and a heartwarming end to the year.
Opera Performances
Our performing year reaches its peak with a chosen opera. Our ‘raison d’etre’. Our 2005 production was Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, a tale of desire, rejection and honour, all held together by Tchaikovsky’s wonderful score. We were joined by the wonderful Elmhurst Ballet School, recently relocated to Birmingham and enjoying fantastic links to the BRB. Our 2006 opera is to be the amazing little pair of operas - Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci. We decided on this classic pairing for our historic year because of the appeal to audiences, the famous tunes, the singability for the chorus members, and the oportunity for principals. Perfect for our amazing little company (which is growing by the week!)
Productions take place in Birmingham City Centre, usually the Crescent Theatre, Brindleyplace and are assisted by volunteer stagehands and set painters. Our critically acclaimed set designs were, for five years, headed up by professional - Kate Ford. She has since moved on to a glittering career in set design, and our recent productions have shown that we have learned a lot from Kate along the way. The cast and chorus is a healthy mix of amateur, semi-professional and professional performers, and many singers have enjoyed the “springboard” effect of performing with Midland Music Makers. An opportunity for serious amateurs - and those in their early professional careers - to shine in major rôles for which some professionals would give their right arm!
Concert Performances
You’ll find us performing a wide variety of material in our thriving Christmas and Spring Concert Seasons as well. In 2005 we enjoyed wonderful Spring concerts of Rossini’s ‘Petite Messe Solennelle’ at the Friends’ Meeting House, Bournville, St. George’s, Edgbaston and Stratford’s Holy Trinity Church. Concerts sometimes also take place at Wyre Piddle, Lee Marston and Lichfield and are often repeated at St. Augustine’s, Solihull, at St.Thomas’s in Stourbridge and other venues in the City centre. In 2006, we are looking forward to an outing of Purcell’s ‘Dido and Aeneas, accompanied by a selection of other British opera.