LOCAL people, who have been homeless, and refugees will put on an opera at Middlesbrough Town Hall, hoping to inspire communities throughout Teesside to come together through beautiful music.

After Winter will be performed on Friday, July 10, and Saturday, July 11, at the Town Hall, and on Sunday, July 12, at the Ryedale Festival in North Yorkshire. Tickets go on sale in March.

The cast will include people who take part in free singing and creative workshops delivered by award-winning charity Streetwise Opera at the Town Hall and at Methodist Asylum Project Middlesbrough in partnership with Depaul UK. These groups, all aged 18 or over, have been homeless or are at risk of homelessness, and come together every week to rebuild their confidence and wellbeing through singing.

They will be joined on stage by world-renowned baritone Roderick Williams OBE, Grammy Award-winning pianist Christopher Glynn, Middlesbrough's own Brodsky Quartet, youth choir Genesis Sixteen and the Ryedale Community Chorus led by Em Whitfield Brooks.

After Winter is an uplifting story of hope. A stranger has arrived in town. He's lost everyone and everything, and is just looking for a place to die. He doesn't know it, but something is about to change.

The production features original music by Austrian composer Franz Schubert, from his famous song cycle Winter Journey, and new pieces by British composer Errollyn Wallen MBE, and it will be directed by English opera director John Fulljames, Artistic Director of the Royal Danish Opera.

The immersive opera, which will also involve staff and students from Teesside University, is staged around the concept of a communal feast, with performers and audience sitting together to share a meal, while they also build bridges in the community.

Following Middlesbrough's commitment to healthy and sustainable food, ingredients for the meal will be from local producers and sustainable sources in collaboration with the Middlesbrough Food Partnership and Middlesbrough Environment City, a charity that promotes and encourages healthy and sustainable living.

This project is possible thanks to generous funding by Arts Council England, Catherine Cookson Charitable Trust, Foyle Foundation, RVW Trust and the members of Streetwise Opera's Commissioning Circle.

For more information, visit www.streetwiseopera.org/region/teesside.