Michael Tippett’s fifth and final opera was written in the mid-80s, a time of social unrest in a Britain fearful of multiculturalism and grappling with the ghettoisation of its inner cities. Jo Ann, a youth worker in Terror Town who is afraid to leave her home, attracts the attention of time travellers from the future. Meanwhile, her foster-brother Donny, a young Black man, is struggling to connect with his African roots. Venturing out, he’s beaten by a brutal mob hunting a scapegoat to drive out the old year and ring in the new. Ultimately, it’s Jo Ann’s redemptive connection with the space pilot Pelegrin that enables her to move on.
As with all his operas, the composer wrote his own libretto for New Year, drawing on Jungian philosophy, street slang and TV sci-fi (Blake’s 7 was a reference). The wildly imaginative score jangles with electric guitars and saxophones and incorporates contemporary forms including blues and – new for Tippett – reggae and rap. Critics who had never liked his texts similarly pooh-poohed his attempts at creating an urban sound world.
Thirty-five years on, and Birmingham Opera Company is taking another look. With the 90-strong City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Alpesh Chauhan and an engaged and utterly fearless community chorus of 100 it’s a remarkable and inspiring feat. This is magnificent but fiendishly complex music, here as tightly coordinated as could be expected of a bustling promenade performance under vaulted canvas.
Keith Warner’s fluent production brings contemporary concerns about tolerance and technology to the fore, while Nicky Shaw’s design nods to the 80s, wrapping the futuristic space travellers in New Romantic lurex. John Bishop’s lighting focuses attention firmly on the storytelling. Tippett’s text still has its awkward tics and quirks, but Warner clarifies the metaphysical arguments as Chauhan does the score. If diaphanous details sometimes blur in the acoustic, this is still exemplary music-making.
Francesca Chiejina is heartachingly good as Jo Ann, her radiant soprano strong and sumptuous. She’s matched by Sakiwe Mkosana’s vital, charismatic Donny and Sarah Pring’s dour, straight-talking Nan.
Joshua Stewart’s lustrous tenor rings out as Pelegrin, his sinuous duet with Chiejina the evening’s beating heart. Lucia Lucas is a mercurial Merlin, the spaceship’s computer whiz, with Samantha Crawford’s laser beam soprano soaring as Regan, their unnervingly robotic commander. Grace Durham and Oskar McCarthy seize their moments sharing the role of Tippett’s presenter-cum-narrator.
New Year may not be perfect, but the composer’s faith in the healing power of dreams and compassion for the outsider (always important to the gay, pacifist Tippett) compels attention. Dare we hope, it asks? The final appearance of a newborn baby intimates yes, but with this production’s unexpectedly high body count, Warner suggests it will come at a price.
• At the Dream Tent, Smithfield, Birmingham, until 13 July
