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::

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.

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