World Premiere Of David Bintley's

Birmingham Royal Ballet will open its exciting and varied new season at Birmingham Hippodrome on Wednesday 7 February with a world premiere of Cyrano. This brand new production is choreographed by David Bintley for BRB, has a specially commissioned score by Carl Davis and new sets by Hayden Griffin.

Following Cyrano, BRB continues to celebrate one of the most important creative collaborations of the 20th Century with a programme of work by George Balanchine and Igor Stravinsky. Agon/Stravinsky Violin Concerto/Symphony in Three Movements form BRB's contribution to the third year of Birmingham's Stravinsky Festival, part of its Urban Fusion programme.

Cyrano 7 - 10 February

This heartbreaking story of one man's truly self-sacrificing devotion, is set in 17th-century France.

Lady Roxane is in love with the dashing cadet Christian de Neuvillette, and so enlists her cousin, the poet and soldier Cyrano de Bergerac to deliver her intended a love letter. Cyrano is a perfect example of a rennaissance man but cursed by his big nose, he lacks the confidence to declare his love for his cousin, Roxane.

Alas, poor Christian can neither read nor write, and so begs Cyrano first to read Roxane's letter, and then to reply. Soon Cyrano is penning love letters for his friend of such amorous and intellectual brilliance they bewitch the unsuspecting Roxane.

Following the world premiere in Birmingham the production of Cyrano will tour to Salford, Plymouth, Sunderland and Oxford.

Agon/Stravinsky Violin Concerto/Symphony in Three Movements 14 - 17 February

Agon is a modern masterwork - ritual, ceremony and the power of human dance crystallised into one sparkling ballet. Stravinsky Violin Concerto, performed for the first time by BRB, is playful and disturbing in equal measure, examining the struggle between the sexes. Symphony in Three Movements is an energetic, abstract ensemble work inspired by Balanchine's impression of World War II - jazzy and intense. -- www.brb.org.uk