Tippett's "New Year" & TV documentary

[Stanley Stewart]

A fascinating although occasionally frustrating voyage of discovery as I tempted to transfer a 1991 off-air video to DVD: viz, Songs of Experience, (64mins), an illuminating analysis of Michael Tippett's output, including helpful extracts from rehearsals of his new work, New Year, (106mins), premiered in 1988 at Houston Grand Opera, directed by Peter Hall, before a full performance on BBC 2, a co-production with Glyndebourne, cleverly opened-out, using special effects, in the studio. Useful partners cheek-by-jowl on a DVD! Initially, I managed to transfer both titles from hard disc to DVD as a master copy. However, gremlins intervened when I tried to transfer a further copy as the recording of New Year jammed at the opening titles and continued to do so at further attempts. I'm no techie but my instinctive inquisitiveness began to stir after noting the 'stereo' imprint on the BBC2 logo, top left hand corner of the screen - remember this? - the start of a new era in broadcasting. A further clue when I inserted the off-air video and got a pointer when I noticed a short gap at the end of the documentary with a short caption. "No signal", before New Year started to play. A hunch made me examine the remote video remote control and looked at the options on the Audio monitor button, before selecting "mix", rather than "stereo" and got a smooth transfer and did a juxtaposition so that New Year is transferred before Songs of Experience thus avoiding any jamming if SOE takes precedence. A huge relief as it seems that both programmes are no longer available and they deserve to be remastered before reissue and have many qualities to appreciate. A few forum members probably have copies in their collection

New Year is a revelation and pre-Christmas listening to the Tippett symphonies on CD, Bournemouth SO/Hickox/Chandos, encouraged me to revisit King Priam and New Year on video as I seemed to be on a learning curve and hearing anew the rich use of melody and rhythmic nuances. The print of New Year is now a bit grainy, a bleached use of colour for the nightmare and Terror Town sequences, enhanced when the protagonist, Jo-Ann (Helen Field in fine voice and presence) takes a space trip to the Lake of Remembrance and full colour is used. However, transfer to DVD sharpens and enhances both features in picture and sound.

Songs of Experience is seen against the idyllic setting of MT's home and an unbroken green landscape from every point of view. He relaxes, fully stretched out on a sofa, near the wide windows, talks about his work or listens to his attractive visitors; Nicholas Unwin playing Gershwin or Craig Ogden strumming along to Blue Guitar. He talks more fully about the need to compose A Child of Our Time and how, in his mid 80s, he felt compelled to write and compose New Year, fully aware that it would be his last opera, both works reflecting a world which has turned on its dark side, yet, despite the horrors of the 20th century he remained confident and optimistic and New Year ends on a firm declaration: ONE HUMANITY - ONE JUSTICE!

Lovely to hear Catherine Bott refer to Michael Tippett's 110th birthday on her Classic FM broadcast last night, (2 Jan)- thank you, Catherine.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I was involved in an education project with Glyndebourne at the time of the first (?only?) British performances there; wonderfully happy memories both of the project and of getting to know Tippett's brand-new work before the performances. I have a video of the broadcast somewhere (if the tape has survived) and played it several times in the '90s - a wonderful opera, really needing revival.

[Stanley Stewart]

An interesting project, fhg. I note that the LPO/Andrew Davis/Leader, David Nolan, he of the dark specs! played for the UK performances. Electronic Sound created by Mike Thorne and Merion Bowen.

Alas, Michael Tippett remains neglected. The original 1970 ROH production of The Knot Garden remained dormant for some time. The Ice Break will be revived this year, its first performance since 1977, at the ROH. I remember that performances for the Amphi only cost £1 50p.

[bluestateprommer]

...Michael Tippett remains neglected. The original 1970 ROH production of The Knot Garden remained dormant for some time. The Ice Break will be revived this year, its first performance since 1977, at the ROH.

That Birmingham Opera Company "total immersion" production of Tippett's The Ice Break is now available to watch through 30 July:

https://operavision.eu/en/library/performances/operas/ice-break-birmingham-opera-company

Besides hearing the Virgin Classics recording many, many years ago, this video was the only opportunity that I see of ever experiencing The Ice Break in some theatrical form. The opera itself remains problematic, to say the least; hence its lack of stagings in general. It is odd, for one, to note the dated 1970's slang cheek-by-jowl with @2015 smart phones and such. Likewise, as the resident UK-history-ignorant Yank, I obviously don't know the cultural background regarding the 1985 Birmingham / Handsworth situation (wikipedia to the rescue, obviously), which has much more resonance for you folks than for me. On the flip side, hearing some lines from Gayle (Stephanie Corley) takes on resonance with talk on this side of the pond about reparations for slavery. It is also perhaps odd that the soprano in the role of Nadia, Nadine Benjamin, is black, and their son, Yuri, is Ross Ramgobin, who looks South Asian / Indian to me, in the context of racial tensions baked into the plot.

But overall, AFAICT, Graham Vick did as strong a rescue job as can be imagined for The Ice Break. Plus, again, particularly on this side of the pond, changes of any live staging or performance of any sort are probably way < 0, so there it is.