Pop-up events have transformed the hospitality sector and now these pared down innovative events in interesting spaces are taking over the arts world as well.

Pop-up Opera has used this approach to performance to revolutionise opera over the past four years, bringing it back into the fore of modern culture.

I spoke to musical director Berrak Dyer, ahead of the summer season debut of Rossini’s hilarious opera Il Barbiere di Siviglia, The Barber of Seville, and she told me a little bit about their contemporary approach.

“We’ve really stripped it back this time – there’s no set and just a handful of props, it is often done as a comedy because it is a comedy but we’ve tried to find something a little bit deeper in the characters.

“The story is your very typical Rossini comedy, all sorts of ridiculous things happen just to get Rosina and Count Almaviva together. He declares his love for her at the beginning, her never having seen him, and the whole opera is about trying to get them together and married. She is looked after by a guardian who is incredibly strict – kept prisoner is quite a strong way of putting it – he won’t really let her out of his sight so there’s all sort of obstacles and funny things that happen along the way.

“I think the reason for stripping the set and the costumes and things right back is to allow the music to shine because the music and voices is what makes it so special. I think to allow those things to take front stage – to show everyone that you don’t need all of this extra stuff to make a comedy but actually with brilliant acting, brilliant singing and audience attention that you can still create an amazing show.”

Berrak’s passion for her role and for the operatic art form is evident and it is something she dates to pre-birth. She says: “I was listening to opera while still in the womb, I started playing piano at the age of four and from about four a half it was always ‘I want to be a pianist, I want to be a pianist’.

“I used to go to concerts all the time, two or three times a week, from piano recitals to symphonies. In my early teens I started going to opera and to me it was that combination of pulling together words and visuals with the music that really drew me to it.

“Playing piano has taken different forms, I started off wanting to be a soloist and I loved opera. Eventually I found out that there was a way I could play piano and work in opera at the same time and here we are.”

Berrak studied solo piano and piano accompaniment at Guildhall School of Music and Drama before going on to train at the National Opera Studio.

As well as her day-to-day duties of selecting operas, editing and producing scores, casting, rehearsing and playing in productions, when she can Berrak seeks out innovative opera across Europe.

“I try to listen to a bit of everything but obviously I do a lot of listening to opera because I go to a lot of shows to see singers and see what else is going on currently, not only in the UK but I also travel quite a lot to Europe to see how they’re doing opera differently and see different conductors and such, and singers.

“It’s slightly more experimental, people are slightly more open to modernising things in mainland Europe but I think the culture probably goes back slightly further.”

You can experience Berrak and the Pop-up Opera’s approach to modernising opera until September this year as they take their production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia to incredible locations across the UK, with regular stops in and around London.

The Bull, 13 North Hill, Highgate, N6 4AB, Tuesday, June 14, 7.30pm or Thames Tunnel Shaft, Brunel Museum, Railway Ave, Rotherhithe, SE16 4LF, Tuesday, June 21 and Wednesday, June 22, 7.30pm. Details: popupopera.co.uk

Christ Church, The Common, Rickmansworth Rd, Chorleywood, Rickmansworth, WD3 5SG, Friday, June 24, 7.30pm in aid of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Details: 01923 282647