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Dreaming of the future: De Nederlandse Opera's staging of Wagner's Dream. one of the works Birmingham Conservatoire students joined in workshops Picture: Clärchen and Matthias Baus
WHEN Welsh
National Opera Orchestra visit Birmingham this week they will not only
be performing live on stage they will
also be giving a helping hand to the musicians
of the future. Because the company,
who stage Richard Wagner's Lohengrin,
Giacomo Puccini's Madam Butterfly
and Jonathan Harvey's Wagner's Dream
at the Hippodrome on June 12-15, will also be taking time out from
rehearsals to work with young musicians at Birmingham Conservatoire. This summer will be the second time the
professional musicians have shared their skills with the students – but
it parallels a similar project which has been taking place in their home
city of Cardiff for nearly 20 years. Spearheading the work for WNO is bassoonist Chris
Vale who first launched the project, known as side-by-side, with Phil
Boughton, the orchestra manager, in the mid 1990s after teaching at the
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Initially it involved just a handful of students
but today it has become an ambitious scheme which has helped many young
people gain a real understanding of playing in an opera orchestra. “When I was working at the college I was dealing
with a lot of the same students for outreach work at the college and the
thing that they all said was that they had not realised how precise an
opera orchestra had to be,” says Chris. “We might play a whole section
as a professional orchestra and then the conductor will say ‘quieter',
‘louder', ‘do this', ‘play it this way' or ‘play it again'. And although
the students do that of course with the college orchestras I think they
suddenly realised the dynamic range of a professional orchestra and also
the things that are unique to opera orchestras. That is things like not
being too loud for the singers, trying to keep the pitch incredibly
steady so that the singers know where they can pitch it, and also just
the complication of all those different keys and the length of time that
you have to play. I think those were some of the big things that they
learnt. “The success story is that some of the students
who have been on placements and have now left the college are coming in
as paid extras for us in the orchestra. And that is a real reward.” Side-by-side has been so successful in Cardiff
that this year WNO have launched a similar scheme with students at
Birmingham Conservatoire. “In this summer season Birmingham is the only
place we tour to,” says Chris. “This is because the size of the
Hippodrome Theatre is big enough to accommodate our large production of
Wagner's Lohengrin, unlike many other places we tour to. I am
from Coventry originally and have contacts with Birmingham and it seemed
to make sense that if we were going to be there for a week then we ought
to be doing something operatic for the students at the Birmingham
Conservatoire. “So we actually started it with our last visit to
Birmingham in March when we were performing Lulu, The Cunning
Little Vixen and Madam Butterfly. “We asked the Conservatoire to come up with
their best players. And I felt it was right to let the college make the
decision. The students were just amazed that the principal
conductor was conducting this sectional. He was wonderful with them.
“We had ten wind, four brass and eight strings. The brass had a workshop on Lohengrin for the first hour and then joined us for Madam Butterfly. The strings had a workshop the day before on the
Dvorak Serenade for Strings. The students told us they really
appreciated the technical standards that they have to reach.” WNO's summer season will certainly give the
students an opportunity to flex their musical muscles. It sees the
return of Puccini's tale of doomed romance Madam Butterfly as
well as Wagner's epic Lohengrin and the first fully staged
performance in England of Jonathan Harvey's Wagner Dream. This work, which was first staged in Amsterdam in
2007, is a blend of biography and fantasy set to a dramatic contemporary
score. It takes us to Venice to the end of the Wagner's life where the
composer is tormented by the fact he has never fulfilled his desire to
write a music drama about the life of the Buddha. “We are just talking about what we will do this
summer and we are looking into doing something with Wagner Dream
because the Conservatoire has such a strong contemporary music group,”
says Chris. “They will be coming to Cardiff to observe a rehearsal and
they will come and see Wagner Dream in Birmingham which will be
interesting for them. It is so unusual to do and an extraordinary piece
of writing.” Chris believes the students can really benefit
from working with WNO professionals. “These kind of programmes were not made available
to me when I was training and they would have helped me immensely. I was
in Midland Youth Orchestra, as it used to be called, with James Langley
and for me it was an amazing time. But when I went to study at the Royal
College I don't think I ever played opera. At that time in your career
you would not have thought of opera as another type of playing or
another job. “It's a very genuine scheme in terms of what the
students get out of it. Often the students come along and play in our
orchestra and sometimes they come along and say ‘this is what I want to
do' and sometimes they say ‘actually it's not for me, I can't cope with
that' and they go for other pathways. But I think it does show the
students the reality of playing in the profession. “The musicians from Welsh National Opera who are
involved in these schemes are working hard on the side by sides. They
are performing in the evenings but spending the day with the students.
But they do it because they believe in it – they believe it is what we
should be doing. It is a big time commitment and it is not every
orchestra who would want to do it.” And Birmingham Conservatoire says the benefits
are huge. “The new partnership between WNO and Birmingham Conservatoire got off to a tremendous start in March. Working with full orchestral sections, and lead by David Adams (WNO Leader) and maestro Frédéric Chaslin, it provided an inspiring and in-depth experience of operatic playing for our students,” says Conservatoire director of orchestral programme and head of brass department David Purser. A scene from WNO.s Lohengrin with Gottfried (Thomas Rowlands) Lohengrin (Peter Wedd). Picture: David Massey “Tea and cake, with the opportunity to mingle
informally after the workshop sessions, seemed to be enjoyed by students
and WNO members alike! We very much look forward to taking the
collaboration forward next year.” Many of the students who took part in the spring
project say they gained a real insight into the work of an opera
orchestra. “It was a first for me to personally sit in with
an opera orchestra and the way that they play is very different to your
typical symphony orchestra,” says clarinet student Tom Howells. “It was
nice to be able to play some opera repertoire. For somebody who had
never played in that sort of scenario before, I feel it would definitely
have been an eye opener as the intensity is very high compared to your
typical symphony orchestra. There are almost no rests in opera music and
you need to be on the ball all of the time.” Violin student Kathryn Coleman says it was a
privilege to play alongside WNO's strings. “They made us feel welcome and encouraged us in
the first violins to move around so we all had the opportunity to play
in different positions,” she says. “The rehearsal was fun and
productive. I came away with a new love for the WNO after being given
the honour of rehearsing with them.” Flute student Jessica Wilkes says: “The
enthusiasm for the event was shared by the students and professionals
which resulted in a great experience of learning how a professional
orchestra works. My section were so friendly and attentive and they gave
me really personal and thoughtful advice over a free cup of tea - what
more could you want?” And trumpet student Eric Brookes says it was
invaluable experience. “As a musician aiming for a professional
orchestral career, I was thrilled and excited by the opportunity to sit
in with members of WNO,” he says. “The experience really highlighted the
importance of playing music beyond the notes on the page and my ears
opened up a more detailed approach to good intonation, style and balance
within an orchestral brass section. I felt the experience was extremely
valuable and I've since used what I learned when playing orchestral
music.” Diane Parkes *WNO perform Wagner Dream on June 12, Lohengrin on June 13 and 15 and Madam Butterfly on June 14. For tickets contact 0844 338 5000 and www.birminghamhippodrome.com |
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Training
musicians of the future
We did a wind and brass sectional on Madam Butterfly with
Frédéric Chaslin, the conductor conducting it, which was marvellous.