'Homophobia' row opera goes ahead

16 July 2011 Last updated at 16:25 GMT Headteacher Emma Hobbs said she was delighted the production was going ahead An opera which was at the centre of a row over a gay character has gone ahead in Bridlington after a school which had pulled out finally agreed to take part.

Bay Primary said its pupils could perform in the production of Beached, by Billy Elliot creator Lee Hall, after he agreed to remove the word "queer".

The show went ahead at the resort's Spa theatre on Saturday.

Bay Primary headteacher Emma Hobbs said she was sure the performance would make the audience forget the controversy.

Beached, which was commissioned by Opera North, involved the school choir and other musicians from groups around Bridlington.

The school had complained about the lines: "Of course I'm queer/That's why I left here/So if you infer/That I prefer/A lad to a lass/And I'm working class/I'd have to concur."

Hall told BBC News: "I agreed to change "queer" to "gay" as to me they are synonymous. I would have done this months ago if asked."

The opera was staged at the Spa theatre in Bridlington

The contested lines have now been changed to: "Of course I'm gay/That's why I went away/So if you infer/That I prefer/A lad to a lass/And him working class/I'd have to concur."

In a joint statement, East Riding of Yorkshire Council and Bay Primary said the school would take part now that the libretto was "an age appropriate text".

The council, the school and Opera North all denied being motivated by homophobia.

Just before Saturday's matinee performance, headteacher Ms Hobbs said: "The kids are very excited. They've been rehearsing really hard this week and rehearsals have gone fantastically.

"It's really important that the work all our children and all of the other choirs have put into this really comes to fruition."

Referring to the controversy the production attracted, she added: "I can certainly say that the performance speaks for itself.

"When the audience see them in action I think that will overshadow anything really."

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Homophobia row opera to go ahead

7 July 2011 Last updated at 10:59 GMT Hall's acclaimed musical Billy Elliot featured gay characters An opera by Billy Elliot creator Lee Hall, which was at the centre of a row over a gay character, is to go ahead after Hall removed the word "queer".

The writer agreed to change the word to "gay" after a primary school removed 300 children from the community show.

The cancellation sparked accusations of homophobia but Bay Primary school has now said it is happy with the language.

Beached, commissioned by Opera North, will take place, as planned, in Bridlington on 15 July.

The school had complained about the lines: "Of course I'm queer/That's why I left here/So if you infer/That I prefer/A lad to a lass/And I'm working class/I'd have to concur."

Hall told BBC News: "I agreed to change "queer" to "gay" as to me they are synonymous. I would have done this months ago if asked."

The contested lines have now been changed to: "Of course I'm gay/That's why I went away/So if you infer/That I prefer/A lad to a lass/And him working class/I'd have to concur."

'Intense negotiations'

In a joint statement, East Riding of Yorkshire Council and Bay Primary said the school would take part now that the libretto was "an age appropriate text".

They said they were "delighted" that the author had "addressed the points raised by the school".

The council, the school and Opera North all denied being motivated by homophobia.

They said they had never "expressed any concern over the inclusion of a gay character, only some of the language and tone around the character's identity", the statement said.

Writer Lee Hall and Opera North director Richard Mantle discussed the controversy on BBC Breakfast

"The writer has now addressed this," it added.

But in his own statement, Hall said the school had "backed down".

"This is a real victory for people speaking up against discrimination.

"It had been an intractable situation for weeks and the school and Opera North were given no other option but to take a U-turn on their discriminatory position.

"It's clearly a victory for good sense. We cannot silence gay people or any minorities. It's a real victory for collective action."

"They tried to censor me and they failed," he added.

Beached tells the story of a single father trying and failing to have a quiet day at Bridlington beach.

Opera North, which has had a two-year residency in the town, said "intense negotiations" had been taking place since the performance was called off on Friday.

"We have been at pains to work closely with the writers at all times, and have supported their rights of artistic expression throughout," a statement from the Leeds-based company said.

"We have also worked equally hard to ensure that the schools and community groups involved in the project have positive feelings of ownership and identity within the production."

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Opera outreach

28 June 2011 Last updated at 07:11 GMT By Vincent Dowd Arts Reporter, BBC World Service In Two Boys the internet 'functions in the story as a masquerade might in an old opera', says its composer Opera's trying hard to be cool - and to appeal to audiences who traditionally had little time for the form. It's why many of the highest-profile new works have been based on stories from the news headlines. This week brings another example with Two Boys at the English National Opera (ENO).

Two Boys composer Nico Muhly first became aware of the bizarre real-life case behind his opera when he was reading the BBC News website.

In Manchester in 2003 a teenage boy posed online as a woman and in a series of postings persuaded an older boy to try to kill him. The younger boy was stabbed but survived.

But Muhly says he and librettist Craig Lucas only ever saw the story as a starting point. "It's not docu-opera. But the operatic potential was obvious.

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There've been times when you felt the opera was created to tick the box of social relevance rather than out of any urgent artistic need to exist”

End Quote Ivan Hewett Music critic "The history of opera is full of disguise - people pretending to be someone else, for political or sexual reasons. Sometimes it's for fun and sometimes it's out of malice. This story had to be an opera - it couldn't work as a play."

Though Two Boys is written and directed by Americans, Muhly insists they never considered shifting the locale to the US.

The piece is having seven performances in London at ENO and it's expected to play at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

When it's suggested his opera is about the power of the internet he protests. "It's a mechanism to tell a story about pretence. The internet functions in the story as a masquerade might in an old opera.

Our story's not about people wearing masks or women disguised in trousers. But it's a modern version of that because most people have been deceived in some way online."

Two Boys isn't the ENO's first attempt to create a work of appeal to people who aren't regular opera-goers, especially to younger ticket-buyers.

In 2006 it staged Gaddafi - A Living Myth with a score by Asian Dub Foundation.

Anna Nicole at the ROH was a recent successful example of tackling popular culture in opera

Music critic Ivan Hewett says that show was a total misfire. "Dramatically and musically Gaddafi was a lame piece - not really a professional opera at all.

"There has been a tendency for opera houses to commission new works about the real world. But there've been times when you felt the opera was created to tick the box of social relevance rather than out of any urgent artistic need to exist."

But Hewett thinks Anna Nicole, staged at the Royal Opera House in February, proves it is possible to chase a young and hip demographic without abandoning artistic credibility.

Mark-Anthony Turnage's opera told the story of the life and death of the US model and actress Anna Nicole Smith.

"Turnage took on the theme of the cult of celebrity and how it can destroy people. The piece had its detractors but I'd far rather see a lively attempt to seize on something current than a drab piece based on mythology."

Ivan Hewett believes that because audiences are increasingly unfamiliar with stories from mythology and ancient history is one reason why we're getting more stories from today's headlines.

But the story doesn't have to be contemporary if the project has the right names attached.

Pop star Damon Albarn has turned his talents to opera with Dr Dee

Rufus Wainwright's opera Prima Donna, about a singer modelled on Maria Callas, found appreciative audiences at the Manchester International Festival in 2009. This year the same festival has co-commissioned Damon Albarn's historical opera Dr Dee with ENO.

So perhaps tempting in younger opera-goers has more to do with employing new and interesting composers, writing in a new way, than with the work's setting and storyline.

Muhly, about to turn 30, says he bridles when people ask if he composed Two Boys for people of his own age. "I don't know what the alternative would be - writing something that only appeals to very old people?

"A good work will appeal to all audiences. What gets people in is a great production of a great piece of music."

Two Boys is at the English National Opera in London until 8 July

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