"His nose has legs, it has grown to giant proportions and is running around town."

Baritone Jeremy Huw Williams isn't exaggerating when he calls The Nose a "radical opera".

"It's farcical at times. Instead of an oversized heroine, we have an oversized nose."

Written in 1928, The Nose is Shostakovich's operatic version of the absurdist tale by Russian artist Nikolai Gogol.

It tells the story of Kovalyov, a pompous government official who one day wakes up without a nose. He embarks on a mission to find the crafty bodypart and restore his face to its original form.

Jeremy, who plays Kovalyov, says: "He thinks to lose a nose is the worst thing that can happen to a man.

"If you lose an arm or leg, society is more accepting. What is also terrible for him is he's a ladies' man, a self-styled major. The size of one's nose is linked to sexual prowess, so it's as though he's lost his manhood."

While the nose has a bit of an adventure, visiting the cathedral and holding up a coach full of travellers before being captured by police, Kovalyov is driven to despair. "It's a comedy but as with all great comedies there is an underlying tragedy and the audience will sympathise with my character," says Jeremy, who trained at the National Opera Studio.

Shostakovich was just 22 when he wrote The Nose. As happened to the book almost a century earlier, the opera received political criticism and was taken off after 16 performances.

The composer's modern musical style also shocked critics of the day: "For the first time a lot of popular music was used," Jeremy explains.

"There's polka, Russian folk songs and popular songs embedded in very serious classical music. It's madcap, rollicking and fast-moving but there are also moments of lyrical beauty and arias.

"Mine is a wonderful role to play and has got so many different emotions - there's great disbelief and crescendos of detestation."

In between the nose-chasing mayhem, there are social messages. "My character's goal is to work himself up in society - he's trying to get ahead of himself. We see how different levels of society react to him and how people look down on people at a lower level.

"People might go away feeling we take things for granted. There's some cruelty too. He goes to the newspaper office and asks to take out an advert asking for his nose. The clerk refuses but offers him some snuff, which Kovalyov sees as one of the cruellest things that can happen. There are all kinds of morals."

Jeremy says The Nose is the perfect introduction to opera. "It's a piece of musical theatre really. My 12-year-old daughter came to watch rehearsals during the Easter holidays and found it hysterical.

"It's entertaining the way they portray me not having a nose. There are not going to cut my nose off I wouldn't go that far for my art - but there are clever theatrical devices.

"If you love the sense of glamour from the Twenties and if you're somebody who's interested in Russian opera you'll love it. But because it's sung in English it has opened up to a much larger audience."

Starts 7.30pm, tickets £6-£22. Call 01273 709709.