Birmingham Opera stages Stockhausen world premiere, with helicopters

Birmingham Opera Company has staged the world premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen's opera Mittwoch aus Licht, one of the most ambitious and unusual productions ever mounted in the city.

The first performance took place on 22 August as part of the London 2012 Festival, the cultural celebration accompanying the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

A cycle completed

Mittwoch aus Licht, or Wednesday from Light, is part of Stockhausen's huge cycle of seven operas, one for each day of the week, which the German composer worked on for more than 25 years. It is the last opera in the cycle to be staged. Stockhausen died in 2007 without seeing it performed in full.

A string quartet in helicopters

The opera includes one of the most famous pieces of modern music, the Helicopter String Quartet, in which the four players each perform in a separate helicopter flying above the city, with their music relayed to the audience below.

In Birmingham, the Elysian Quartet took to the skies for the performance, with the BBC Radio 1 DJ Nihal acting as moderator, a role previously taken by Stockhausen himself.

A company that takes risks

Birmingham Opera Company was founded in 1987 as City of Birmingham Touring Opera by the director Graham Vick and the conductor Simon Halsey, and took its current name in 2001. It is known for staging opera in unusual places, such as warehouses, leisure centres and industrial buildings, and for casting local people alongside professional singers.

Its first production, Falstaff, was performed at Cocks Moors Woods Leisure Centre in Brandwood. Since then, the company has won national awards for productions including Berg's Wozzeck, staged in a derelict warehouse in Ladywood in 2001, and Beethoven's Fidelio in 2002, which was broadcast live on BBC Four.

Bringing opera to new audiences

Vick's approach has been to make opera accessible to people who would never think of going to an opera house, and to reflect the diversity of the city in the company's work. Large numbers of local volunteers take part in its productions as performers and helpers.

The Olympic summer

The London 2012 Festival has brought major cultural events to cities across the country during the Olympic summer. The Birmingham production is one of the most eagerly anticipated, attracting music lovers from around the world.

The production has drawn interest from music lovers and critics far beyond Birmingham.

A challenge for performers

Stockhausen's music is famously complex, and performing it required months of preparation. The logistics of the helicopter quartet alone, with musicians, pilots and sound engineers working together, made it one of the most technically demanding productions the company has attempted.

For Birmingham, the premiere confirms the city's reputation as a place where adventurous music can flourish, alongside the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.