Mittwoch aus 'Licht', Argyle Works, Birmingham

Trip the Light fantastic with Stockhausen's ambitious opera

High flyer: Laura Moody, one of the airborne string quartet who will perform in 'Mittwoch' (David Jensen)

In a typically bold move (supported by the London 2012 Festival), Graham Vick directs Birmingham Opera Company's world premiere production of Mittwoch, the last as-yet-unstaged segment of Karlheinz Stockhausen's visionary seven-day opera cycle Licht (Light).

Featuring a flying string quartet in four helicopters, musicians suspended in hoists, a camel that shits planets, and some of the most challenging electro-acoustic music ever devised, the six-hour opera opens on what would have been the 84th birthday of the postwar avant-garde's iconic guru, who claimed to have been born on the star Sirius.

Presented in a former metal-plating plant, under the musical direction of Stockhausen's collaborator Kathinka Pasveer, Mittwoch features the Radio 1 DJ Nihal Arthanayake in an emcee role, plus local people recruited as part of BOC's community participation programme.

(0121 246 6632; birminghamopera.org.uk) Wed to 25 Aug