Paris, 1900. Penniless writer Rodolfo believes that art is all he needs – until he meets Mimì, the lonely seamstress who lives upstairs. So begins a timeless love story that blooms, fades, and rekindles with the passing seasons. But while the couple’s friends, Marcello and Musetta passionately row and make up, a force greater than love threatens to overtake Rodolfo and Mimì. Richard Jones’s production evokes the vivid contrasts of fin de siècle Paris, from Bohemian apartments to glittering arcades, while Kevin John Edusei, Evelino Pidò and Paul Wynne Griffiths conduct an array of dazzling performers

Solti’s 100th birthday on October 21, 2012, featuring the World Orchestra for Peace. This unique ensemble owes its existence to the vision of its founder, Sir Georg Solti, who believed passionately in peace and the power of music and musicians to be ambassadors for peace. Charmingly hosted by Solti’s widow, Lady Valerie Solti, and featuring soloists such as Angela Gheorghiu and René Pape as well as members of the Georg Solti Accademia, this memorable evening presents musical highlights, all of which played a significant role in Solti’s life and career. Conductor Valery Gergiev was a good friend of his advisor Georg Solti. Together with Lady Valerie Solti and the World Orchestra for Peace he carries on Solti’s vision and maintains his memory.

When a Russian dissident is released after 20 years of imprisonment, he finds his wife in despair, his son estranged and the world outside sinking into racial violence. As events get out of hand, the rivalry between blacks and whites turns into a murderous mob riot. Birmingham Opera’s artistic director Graham Vick takes up the challenging of mounting Tippett’s both visionary and eccentric opera, that has remained unstaged since its premiere in 1977. An unused warehouse is transformed into an airport terminal, through which the audience enters a participatory experience, ushered by the chorus.

Rusalka, a water spirit, lives with her family in the pure waters of the forest lake. When she falls in love with a Prince, she sacrifices her voice and leaves her home in the hope of finding true love in a new world – a world that does not love her back.