A new production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro is bringing Indian classical music, Punjabi and Urdu and Yorkshire poetry to the celebrated opera, relocating the story to 1970s Bradford and exploring themes of class, power and social change in modern Britain.
The production by Bradford Opera Festival will feature three south Asian opera singers – Oscar Castellino, Natasha Agarwal and Kanchana Jaishakar – alongside an ensemble of Western and Indian classical musicians.
Adapted by Yorkshire poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan, the production will be performed in a Yorkshire dialect and will move Mozart's comic opera from its original European setting to the multicultural communities of 1970s Bradford.
Singer, poet and lyricist Kauser Mukhtar, whose work focuses on south Asian cultural heritage in British communities, has translated sections of the arias into Punjabi and Urdu.
Mukhtar said the fusion of Western and Indian classical music and the use of Punjabi and Urdu would make the production more accessible to Bradford's diverse communities.
Mozart's original score remains at the heart of the productionLorne Campbell / Guzelian
Mozart's original score remains at the heart of the production but has been reorchestrated by Yorkshire composer and conductor Ben Crick for Western and Indian classical musicians.
Crick said the opera's original themes of challenging class privilege made it well suited to a contemporary adaptation. He said the production aimed to reclaim the "radical spirit" of Figaro and present it to a new generation.
The final act is set in an allotment, adding a distinctly Yorkshire setting to the story's themes of love, power and social hierarchy.
McMillan said relocating Figaro to Bradford and giving its characters a Yorkshire voice allowed audiences to experience Mozart's characters and their concerns in a new way.
The production is directed by Bradford Opera Festival artistic director Alex Chisholm, who said the diverse cast reflected the realities of Bradford both in the 1970s and today.
"Britain's cultural identity has always been shaped by the meeting of different traditions, stories and communities," Chisholm said, adding that the production was rooted in a specific place while remaining relevant to audiences elsewhere.
The production builds on Bradford Opera Festival's 2023 adaptation of Rossini's The Barber of Seville, which was praised by critics.
The Marriage of Figaro will be performed in Bradford, Leeds and Skipton from Nov. 17 to 25, before a limited run at London's Wilton's Music Hall from Nov. 23 to 25.
