“Opera in this country is definitely not accessible,” says Byron Jackson, an international baritone and the artistic director of what is thought to be the first black- and Asian-led production of Wagner in the UK.
Opening in Birmingham on Sunday, this rendition of the German-language opera The Flying Dutchman will feature a cast from across the Commonwealth, and a number of community performers from Handsworth, Balsall Heath and farther afield in the West Midlands.
“We’re trying to engage people who have not necessarily sung in a classical choral work before, to give them an opportunity to be inspired and enthused,” says Jackson. “And this is the first ethnically diverse take on such an exalted and celebrated piece of work. It’s never been done in this country. We need to ask why that is.”
Alongside Jackson is the director Iqbal Khan, the brains behind the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. Their opera aims to continue the inclusive legacy of that sporting event.
“We’re not trying to be tokenistic. We’re not trying to be woke,” says Jackson. “What we’re trying to do is say, ‘Look, if people can see that they have role models from their very communities, that have been disfranchised or underserved, that should inspire people to come and be part of the process.’”
Jackson was born in Balsall Heath to a family of Jamaican heritage. His grandmother, who predominantly raised him during childhood, was part of the Windrush generation and the family faced financial difficulties.
“I couldn’t afford to have music lessons. There were huge, huge barriers – economic and social barriers. And sadly there still is,” he says.
His struggles to forge ahead in the opera industry led him to create Persona Arts, a charity that stages opera, classical and choral music productions with the aim of inspiring new and diverse audiences throughout the West Midlands.
Outside London and the south of England, there are very few opportunities to get involved in opera, he says, and even fewer chances to get paid for it.
Some of those taking part in the production of The Flying Dutchman belong to singing groups such as the Birmingham Choral Union and the choir at St Mary’s church in Handsworth. Most have not sung in an opera before.
Sue Houghton, the chair of the Birmingham Choral Union, says: “I’ve never done opera before, and I’ve been singing for over 50 years. It’s a whole new world. It’s such an experience and really gets your adrenaline going. I think it has been such a brilliant idea to get more people involved in this kind of thing.”
Part of the international opera canon, The Flying Dutchman is considered Wagner’s first undisputed masterpiece. It tells the story of a man doomed to sail the seas for all eternity unless he finds true love.
Jackson, who is taking the role of the Dutchman, says he deliberately chose to stage the opera in the original German, with English surtitles, rather than an English-language adaptation.
“We’re not trying to dumb it down. Yes, this is about engagement and accessibility, but also not undermining the credibility of people’s work,” he says. “It sings better in German for one, but we also want to challenge people and improve their musicianship.
“Quite a few people have been put off by the fact that it’s Wagner,” he adds, especially as it is often seen as a “country house opera” and “high art”. “Getting people involved in the artistic process has been challenge.”
Rehearsals have been taking place in Smethwick and Handsworth, both areas known for vibrant south Asian and African-Caribbean communities, which he hopes will help introduce it to new audiences – along with the fact that it is black- and Asian-led, or ethnically led, as he describes it.
“What is ethnically led? We’ve never had an opportunity in this country to define what we mean by non-white,” he says. “And actually it’s not getting to the core root of the problem, which is we still don’t have a healthy ecology of a baton-passing between homegrown black and diverse artists.”
The Flying Dutchman (Der fliegende Holländer) is at Birmingham’s Bradshaw Hall at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, 7-13 July.
