Not what you expect from opera

Despite being a trained musician myself, I must admit to finding opera the most impenetrable of the classical artforms - but then my first experiences, whilst at school in Scotland, were of awful warbling singing in a foreign language which I didn't understand. Birmingham Opera is very different.

Everything is in English and so you can follow the storylines. They deliberately choose to perform pieces with contemporary relevance - for instance, in La Traviata the death of the female lead Violetta became a flower-fest of Princess of Wales-like proportions - and find unusual venues in which to perform. In fact, the NIA is the most 'tame' place I've seen their work in many a year, as other shows have taken me to disused museum storerooms, moth-balled banks, a big top in a park, a disused ice-rink and a cavernous space underneath railway arches in the Jewellery Quarter. Most excitingly, their interaction with PLUs (people like us) is not only through being in the audience, but also being part of the cast - whether formally, through regular rehearsals alongside professional singers, or simply by being part of the crowd which, invariably, becomes part of the action.

BOC's strapline is 'not what you expect from opera' and that's spot on. It dares you to overcome your prejudices about fat ladies singing, and simply gets you swept up in a multi-sensory experience. Birmingham should be very proud that this company is based here.

Come and see for yourself tomorrow (Sunday 18 May) when they'll be having an Open Day between 12 and 4pm at the Custard Factory in Digbeth, Birmingham.

PS An honourable mention in dispatches for another local arts organisation - the beautifully-sculpted Lichfield Festival - which was shortlisted as one of the top four arts festivals in the UK, and for George Caird, the ebullient head of the Birmingham Conservatoire, whose multi-media CD about the music of Benjamin Britten was shortlisted in the Creative Communications category of the RPS Awards.