The Ice Break

The Ice Break is an opera in three acts by Michael Tippett, to an original English libretto by the composer. It was first produced at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on 7 July 1977, conducted by Colin Davis, the dedicatee of the opera.

One meaning of the opera's title is a reference to the actual physical breaking of ice on the frozen northern rivers, signaling the advent of spring. The composer has said that the subject of the opera is "whether or not we can be reborn from the stereotypes we live in." John Warrack has noted that the work "confronts questions of stereotype on a wider scale" compared to Tippett's earlier operas, and also in a contemporary setting. Tippett himself put this line on a preface page to a published score of the opera, the opening of François Villon's Ballade des pendus::

"Brother humans who live after us, do not harden your hearts against us."

Performance history

A German translation was given at the Kiel Opera House the year following its premiere. The Opera Company of Boston mounted the work in May 1979 under the direction of Sarah Caldwell, the first professional production of a Tippett opera in the USA. It was revived at Covent Garden the same year, but was not thereafter seen until a 1990 concert production at the Henry Wood Proms in the Royal Albert Hall in 1990. A recording was made with the 1990 cast.

Birmingham Opera Company, in partnership with 45 arts and social organizations in Birmingham who provided the amateur actors to perform in the many crowd scenes in the opera, gave five promenade style performances of the opera in the B12 warehouse in the Digbeth area of central Birmingham in April 2015. The staging was produced by Graham Vick with the Birmingham Opera Company Chorus and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Gourlay.

Roles

Character Lev, a 50-year-old teacher Nadia, his wife Yuri, their son Gayle, Yuri’s native-born white girlfriend Hannah, a hospital nurse, Gayle’s black friend Olympion, a sports champion, Hannah’s boyfriend Luke, a young intern at Hannah’s hospital Lieutenant Astron, a psychedelic messenger

Voice part (composer's descriptions) bass lyric soprano baritone dramatic soprano rich mezzo-soprano tenor tenor baritone lyric mezzo-soprano and high tenor (or countertenor)

Original cast John Shirley-Quirk Heather Harper Tom McDonnell Josephine Barstow Beverly Vaughn Clyde Walker John Dobson Roderick Kennedy James Bowman

Birmingham Opera Company 2015 Andrew Slater Nadine Benjamin Ross Ramgobin Stephanie Corley Chrystal E. Williams Ta'u Pupu'a John-Colyn Gyeantey Adam Green Anna Harvey and Meili Li

Synopsis

Prior to the action of the opera, Nadia had emigrated with her baby son, Yuri, after her husband, Lev, had been sentenced to the prison camps of Russia.

Act 1

The opera opens in an airport lounge, where Lev, a Russian dissident, arrives to join his wife, Nadia, and his son, Yuri, in the West in exile after 20 years in prison. In the airport also are Yuri's girlfriend Gayle and Gayle's friend Hannah, who are also waiting the arrival of the black athlete, Olympion, a Muhammad Ali-like character. Lev and Olympion separately arrive. Lev reunites with Nadia and Yuri, but Yuri feels distant from Lev, since he has never met his father as an adult. In the meantime, Gayle throws herself at Olympion, which angers Yuri and causes him to attack Olympion, who knocks him down. Back at home, Yuri expresses anger at his father.

Act 2

Among Olympion's fans, there are gang rivalries which crystallise into a conflict between blacks and whites. Gayle and Yuri wear masks and blend into the masked white chorus, while the same is true on the black side for Olympion and Hannah. The conflict explodes into a mob riot, and Olympion and Gayle die in the violence. Yuri is barely alive and is taken to hospital.

Act 3

Nadia, on the brink of death, asks Hannah to take care of Lev. In an interlude, the psychedelic messenger Astron has appeared, and a drugged-out crowd hails him as a saviour. Astron dismisses this and disappears. Back in the hospital, Yuri has undergone successful surgery, and is totally encased in a plaster cast. The cast is cut away, and Yuri stands. Yuri eventually embraces his father.

Recordings

• Virgin Classics 7 91448-2: David Wilson-Johnson (Lev), Heather Harper (Nadia), Sanford Sylvan (Yuri), Carolann Page (Gayle), Cynthia Clarey (Hannah), Thomas Randle (Olympion), Bonaventura Bottone (Luke), Donald Maxwell (Lieutenant), Christopher Robson, Sarah Walker; London Sinfonietta Chorus; London Sinfonietta; David Atherton, conductor

References

Notes

Further Reading

The Operas of Michael Tippett (English National Opera/Royal Opera Opera Guide 29), John Calder, 1985. ISBN 0-7145-4061-7.