1. Traffic wardens are routinely told to wander around abandoned industrial units in Ladywood at night looking for cars to ticket; or
2. Visitors to (the nationally acclaimed) Birmingham Opera Company’s King Idomeneo are being opportunistically targetted by the city’s traffic wardens.

After hearing council leader Mike Whitby expound on the importance of the arts in the city last night I sincerely hope it’s not the latter.

Now, fair enough, a double-yellow’s a double-yellow and there’s a fire station a couple of roads away that it wouldn’t be very smart to block off.  But why does the response have to be to send people to ticket the cars (and rake in the cash) night after night?  Those streets surround derelict buildings and are deserted in the evenings so surely there’s a more constructive solution.

I understand the Opera Company have actually been managing the limited parking availability as well as possible – stewards are telling people where not to park and they’ve put on buses from the Town Hall – so there’s a sense of satisfaction when the wardens (allegedly responding to ‘a complaint’) are unable to ticket anyone.  Maybe, in hindsight, the Company should have contacted the council themselves to put extra arrangements in place.

Birmingham Opera Company are busting a gut to do something spectacular, putting Birmingham on the map (for the right reasons) and providing something genuinely exciting to attract new audiences and people from outside the city.

Why on earth would anyone from the city want to stand in their way?

By the way, I’ve tried to be a proper journo about this and have called the council’s press office for a response but I’m still waiting for that and, heck, there’s a comment box below.  If I do hear back from anyone I’ll update this post.

Oh, and the final performances of King Idomeneo are tonight and tomorrow – if you’ve not gone yet then please do, it’s great.

If you spot a review, some photos, film or whatever (or produce something yourself) then let me know in the comments.  I’ll be searching out what I can and hopefully we’ll collect together some interestingness.

First up the Birmingham Opera Company website and the Birmingham Opera Design Brains Trust blog which has profiles of the people involved and sneak previews from July when rehearsals were going on and the building was being prepared.

Reviews

• Guardian
• The Times
• Birmingham Post
• John Mostyn
• Ennuyer.net
• Metro
• Pete Ashton
• The Stirrer
• Whatsonstage Midlands
• The Observer
• The Telegraph
• The Independent
• Andy Pryke
• Russ L

Photos

• chai wallah
• Birmingham Post
• Pete Ashton

I went to the full dress rehearsal of Birmingham Opera Company’s King Idomeneo on Sunday night and loved it. What’s not to like about an abandoned factory stuffed with shipping containers, opera singers, dirt and orange trees?

Anyway, I have two tickets for tonight’s proper opening show to give away to the first person who shouts up for them in the comments.

Here are some guidelines:

• No-one associated with CiB (that includes Creative Republic types) can claim the tickets
• First to claim the tickets in the comments wins
• But feel free to stake a claim after the first post, just in case (see below)
• I need to give your real name to the ticket-giving people.  If you post under a pseudonym then remember to use a real email address.  If I you don’t reply to a confirmatory email quick enough and/or I think you’re messing about I’ll work my way down the list of commenters
• Tickets are to be collected on the door no later than 6.30pm today, 12 August 2008 – don’t claim them if you can’t make it (it sounds obvious but…)
• My decision on anything and everything is final

If whoever goes would be good enough to blog about the show or send me a review to post on CiB that’d be great.  Not essential or anything but it’d be nice.

If you don’t win the tickets then maybe consider buying one and going along anyway.  You’re not likely to get the chance to see anything like this for a while.

Finally, the Birmingham Post’s photographer was there on Sunday so you can see some pics to get an idea of what it was all about.  There’s more info in my last post about it and on the Birmingham Opera Company website.

Firstly, the first performance will be on 12 August but there’s a free dress rehearsal taking place on Sunday 10 August at 7pm.  If you’d like to go down to that then email boxoffice@birminghamopera.org.uk to reserve your place.

The production will be a walkabout affair allowing the audience to ‘move with the action around the performance space’.  Comfy shoes are recommended because it’s a 3 hour performance (with interval).

The venue is an abandoned rubber factory just off Ladywood Middleway (directions are here).  Here’s what the place looked like a little while ago:

The Birmingham Opera Design Trust blog has profiles of the people involved in bringing this production to life as well as the odd tidbit about how things are coming together and is worth a read.

More info on the perfomance is available on the Birmingham Opera Company website and you can buy tickets through the REP’s booking system.  Finally, here’s the flyer: