Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk

"As the walls close in around us it is a time not to bury our heads in the sand but to look ourselves directly in the eye." That's what director Graham Vick had to say in relation to Birmingham Opera Company's 50th production, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Shostakovich's epic opera was famously banned by Stalin in 1936, despite huge international success in Russia and abroad. It wasn't performed again for 25 years. Fast forward to March 2019 and to the Tower Ballroom, an iconic but disused nightclub by Edgbaston Reservoir. Birmingham Opera Company reopened the doors to stage Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. For five sold-out performances, audiences came face to face with bloodied brides, rats, mourners, wedding guests, axes, poison and "a turkey-cock in leopardprint smalls" (that'd be The Lover, Brenden Gunnell, making his Birmingham Opera Company debut in the role). See for yourself...