The underdogs have shown up well on the big stage and even Portugal put their hands up against the All Blacks and got a well-earned try.

BBC: Zinzan Brooke column

"We want to show that we have got a vision for Birmingham and an ambition to put Birmingham on the international stage so that we are up there with the likes of Barcelona and Berlin, " he said.

BBC: Birmingham bids to create three art galleries

Emma Dante, the director, perhaps wisely made no attempt to put Vesuvius on stage, instead having her Fenella the Italian actress Elena Borgogni run up a flight of stairs and assume the attitude of a martyr in an icon.

NEWYORKER: Opera on the Barricades