Evening events, Music, Opera

• Directed by: Adam Spreadbury-Maher
• Written by: Tosca

Adam Spreadbury-Maher directs his own English version of Verdi's political thriller set in a famous Swedish homeware store.

Donizetti's comedy about an old bachelor's quest to find a young wife. Sung in English.

• Directed by: Giles Havergal
• Written by: Benjamin Britten

Giles Havergal directs Britten's comic opera set in early 20th-century Suffolk during May Day celebrations. Starring Josephine Barstow as Lady Billows. Sung in English.

The uplifting tale of the musical Von Trapp family, packed full of hummable tunes.

• Directed by: Edward Gardner (cond)
• Written by: Andrew Shore

Britten's classic opera.

• Directed by: Michael Rosewell (cond)
• Written by: Verdi

Michael Rosewell conducts Verdi's opera about a corsair who becomes the Doge of Genoa. With Craig Smith in the title role and Elizabeth Llewellyn

Imprisoned and tortured for threatening to expose the barbarity of a brutal regime, political prisoner Florestan has little hope left. Only a daring feat of heroism by his loyal wife Leonore can offer him a chance of escape – and of justice. Beethoven’s only opera is a cry of defiance against oppression and an ode to…

• Directed by: Antony McDonald (dir)
• Written by: Wagner

Lothar Koenigs conducts Wagner's opera of love and redemption. Starring Peter Wedd in the title role and Emma Bell as Elsa. Directed by Antony McDonald. Sung in German with surtitles in English (and Welsh in Cardiff).

Seductress, victim, manipulator: Lulu lives off men as both tortured and torturer, purveyor of ecstasy and angel of death. Caught up in greedy games and seedy schemes, and surrounded by lovers driven to despair, Lulu makes an inexorable rise to the highest levels of power, money and fame. But her descent is just as swift.

Minimalist composer Philip Glass’s magical reimagining of Jean Cocteau’s 1946 La Belle et la Bête combines the classic black and white film with live performance in a Šsophisticated work that is at once a touching fairy tale and a meditation on creativity. Removing the film’s original dialogue track and score by Georges…

Vincenzo Bellini: I Capuleti ed i Montecchi - opera in 2 acts Bellini's sixth opera was written for La Fenice in Venice in 1830, immediately before La sonnambula. It was not based directly on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet but on its Italian precursors. A distinctive coloration is provided by the older tradition of…

• Directed by: Mark Forkgen
• Written by: Marc Blitzstein

Mark Forkgen conducts an English adaptation by Marc Blitzstein of Kurt Weill's opera, which gives a satirical view of capitalism in pre-war London. Directed by Ellie Nixon.

Highlights include: Georges Bizet: Les Toréadors from Carmen Giuseppe Verdi: Ehi! paggio! from Falstaff Giuseppe Verdi: Ella giammai m'amò from Don Carlos Richard Wagner: O du, mein holder Abendstern (Song to the evening star) from Tannhäuser, Act 3 Interval The acclaimed and award-winning operatic…

Giuseppe Verdi: Alzira - opera in 2 acts (concert performance in Italian with English surtitles) Interval continued Verdi's rarely heard eighth opera was his first for the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, in 1845. Cammarano, the resident poet, based his libretto on a play by Voltaire subtitled Les Américains, set…

• Written by: Verdi

Verdi's passionate opera in four acts about the doomed love affair between Ethiopian slave girl Aida and Egyptian hero Radames featuring the Chisinau National Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus. Sung in Italian with English surtitles.

• Directed by: Ian Page (cond)
• Written by: Dittersdorf

Ian Page conducts Dittersdorf's Symphony In F 'The Rescue Of Andromeda By Perseus', Gluck's Scene from Orfeo Ed Euridice, Haydn's Scene from Philemon Und Baucis and Mozart's Scene from Apollo Et Hyacinthus, with Anna Devin, soprano, Christopher Ainslie, countertenor and Benjamin Hulett, tenor.

Martin Handley conducts Puccini's classic East meets West tragedy about a young geisha girl and her American lover. Directed by Jacopo Spirei. Sung in Italian.