Ghost Patrol was co-produced with Scottish Opera and premiered at the 2012 Edinburgh Festival. The one-act opera was part of a double-bill which Music Theatre Wales toured extensively in England and Wales last autumn.

The awards will be announced at a ceremony at London’s Dorchester Hotel on Tuesday, March 12, presented by Melvyn Bragg, who said of the shortlist:

"2012 was a remarkably fine year for British achievement not least in British art, by British artists. Arriving at this shortlist was a tough job for our judges. We are proud of this world class list of nominees which recognise and honour the best talent at work in the UK today."

The South Bank Show Sky Arts Awards are amongst the world’s most coveted arts awards, celebrating the best of British culture and achievement across visual art, theatre, opera, dance, comedy, classical music, pop, TV drama, literature and film. Nominees in other sections of this year’s shortlist include Sam Mendes for Bond movie Skyfall and novelist Hilary Mantel.

In the Opera Section, Ghost Patrol is up against strong competition from the Royal Opera House’s production of Les Troyens and Oliver Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are at The Barbican.

Ghost Patrol ("stirs the imagination.. grabs the heart." - Financial Times) is set in a modern day bar where two soldiers and a woman trying to escape their past collide, uncovering a terrible secret and unleashing inevitable tragedy. The opera had a libretto by novelist Louse Welsh and the production was directed by Matthew Richardson, designed by Samal Blak, with lighting by Ace McCarron. MTW’s Music Director and Joint Artistic Director Michael Rafferty was the conductor.

In 2011 Music Theatre Wales won a UK Theatre Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera for its production of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek, which it will revive later this year as part of its 25th anniversary celebrations.