An ambitious production of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman (Der fliegende Holländer) is to be performed at Bradshaw Hall at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire this July.

In what is believed to be the UK’s first ethnically-led Wagner production, The Flying Dutchman will be presented by Persona Arts, with music direction from international baritone Byron Jackson and stage direction by Iqbal Khan (artistic director of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony and associate director at Birmingham Rep).

A professional cast with heritage from across the Commonwealth is joined by a skilled community chorus, drawn from the West Midlands region, including the Birmingham Choral Union, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and St Mary’s Church, Handsworth. Music comes from the Central England Camerata, under the baton of Jack Ridley.

Main character parts will be performed by Anando Mukerjee, Mari Wyn Williams, Laura Woods, Christian Joel and Gerrit Paul Groen, with Byron Jackson taking the role of The Dutchman.

Wagner’s score is presented alongside a short new commission by Birmingham-based composer, Bobbie-Jane Gardner.

The production is part of Byron Jackson’s mission to break down racial barriers that still exist within the opera and classical music sectors. The community chorus and orchestra are drawn from across Birmingham and the Black Country, and into rural areas of Shropshire and Worcestershire.

Rehearsals are taking place in Smethwick and Handsworth, an area of the city known for its vibrant South Asian and African-Caribbean communities. These factors mean that this production of Wagner will be performed - and seen - by many people of mixed ethnic heritage who may never have experienced opera before.

The Flying Dutchman (Der fliegende Holländer) will be sung in German with English surtitles and shows at The Bradshaw Hall, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on Sunday 7 July @ 2pm (public dress rehearsal), Wednesday 10 July and Saturday 13 July - both at 7pm. Tickets cost £10 to £45 and are available from bcu.ac.uk