Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back - that's a plot we're all familiar with. How about this - man has nose, man loses nose, nose has an adventure.

Strange as it may seem, this is the plot of one of the operas showing at the Brighton Festival.

Based on a short story by Gogol, The Nose is the story of how one man wakes up to find his nose is missing. The nose turns up in the local barber's breakfast roll, escapes being eaten and goes off to experience life on its own.

The owner, Kovalyov, discovers his nose has become a state official by the end of the day and demands it return to his face but is rudely rebuffed by his former facial appendage.

Originally written to include 80 characters, The Nose has been has reworked to convey the same bustling town community but with a hard-working cast of just nine people.

The Nose was written by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich when he was in his early 20s.

First performed in 1930, the political climate of the Soviet Union meant the opera was barely performed after 1936.

Shostakovich was a musical genius who fell foul of Stalin's regime, which lead to recordings of his music being destroyed and his scores being "recycled to save paper".

His high standing in the international music community saved him from a more serious fate, and with this performance of his early opera and a special anniversary concert by the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Festival celebrates his prodigious talent.

Starts: 7.30pm. Tickets: £22, £18, £15, £10, £6.