Birmingham Opera Company doesn't like to do things simply. The internationally renowned company avoids traditional venues and instead rocks up at surprising venues such as ice rinks and musty old banks. Not only that, but they like to recruit local volunteers for their casts.
But these aren't am-dram performances. So well respected are their shows, they're often in the running at the International Opera Awards and will be again this year. They're nominated in the Best Production and Best Director categories for 2014 production Khovanskygate: A National Enquiry, which they staged on Cannon Hill. See the image above.
Birmingham Opera Company's latest performance, at the B12 Warehouse in Digbeth, is The Ice Break by Michael Tippett. Directed by Graham Vick and conducted by Andrew Gourlay, the opera will be delivered by the usual cast of international stars, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and a chorus of 150 local singing and acting volunteers.
There are tickets available for Friday April 3 and Saturday April 4. Buy tickets from Birmingham Opera.
Just to prove that the Birmingham Opera Company is one of the most exciting companies around, check out these images from their past performances below.
The Wedding, aka Les Noces by Stravinsky, performed at the AE Harris Building in the Jewellery Quarter.
A performance of Stockhausen's Mittwoch Aus Licht at Argyle Works, Digbeth, in 2012.
Birmingham Opera Company
From He Had it Coming, aka Don Giovanni by Mozart, at the Old Municipal Bank, Broad Street, in 2006.
The world premiere of Life is a Dream, by Jonathan Dove, at the Argyle Works in 2012.
Pete Ashton
From Ariadne [Richard Strauss's Ariadne Auf Naxos], performed in 2006 at the Central Methodist Hall and Q Club on Corporation Street.
Roy Peters
More music on Time Out Birmingham.