BATH Opera is on tour with the summer 2023 production, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, in an imaginative updated staging which moves the action from the decadence of the late 18th century to the power-plays of 1950s Hollywood.

The tour continues at Wincanton Memorial Hall on Friday and Saturday 14th and 15th July, ending at the Julian Slade Theatre at Prior Park College, Bath, on Saturday 21st. All performances start at 7.30pm.

Director Will Stevens, making his debut with Bath Opera, has chosen a radical relocation for his production of what is generally regarded as Mozart’s most popular opera and one of the greatest of all operas.

It is set in Almaviva Studios, a film production company run by a powerful man who likes to be called The Count – his young and beautiful wife is known as The Countess.

The events take place over a rather crazy 24 hours and are narrated by the slightly tipsy set designer Antonio. The Count has money and power and uses both in his lecherous pursuit of young actresses. But he is no match for the resourceful Figaro and his fiancee Susannah, helped by the Countess – who is understandably depressed by her husband’s constant infidelities. By the end of the opera, the Count finds he is not as much in control as he thought he was!

It’s all told with some of Mozart’s most beautiful and well-known arias.

The principal singers are: Niall Hoskin as the Count, Anna Fitzgerald as the Countess, Andrew Havers as Figaro, Katy Garden as Susannah, and Gabriella Eels as Cherubino.

Last year’s Bath Opera summer production of Tosca scooped two awards at the annual NODA awards in Plymouth, including joint best opera in the South West.

For tickets phone 01963 34196.