Birmingham Opera Company
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Birmingham Opera Company is a professional opera company based in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, England, that specialises in innovative and avant-garde productions of the operatic repertoire, often in unusual venues.
The company was founded by leading international opera director Graham Vick and conductor Simon Halsey as the City of Birmingham Touring Opera in 1987, acquiring its current name in 2001.
Besides small local venues such as community centres and public town Halls in the Birmingham area, unusual venues have included a dilapidated warehouse on the edge of a local housing estate; a large tent beside the Aston Villa Football Club grounds; and an old car parts factory close by.
The company won the Prudential Award for Opera in 1991 for its first production of Wagner's mammoth Ring Cycle, and the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Music for its 2001 production of Berg's Votzeck in a derelict warehouse in Ladywood.
After almost two decades, Graham Vick remains Artistic Director.
