(Photo Credit: Lorne Campbell / Guzelian)

Bradford Opera Festival will present a new production of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” this November.

The work, adapted by poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan, will head to Wilton’s Music Hall in London from Nov. 23 – 25, 2026. The production relocates Mozart’s comic masterpiece to 1970s Bradford, blending Yorkshire dialect with a score reorchestrated to incorporate both Western and Indian classical traditions.

The adaptation, directed by Bradford Opera Festival Artistic Director Alex Chisholm and conducted by composer Ben Crick, features a cast that includes South Asian opera singers Oscar Castellino, Natasha Agarwal, and Kanchana Jaishakar. Singer, poet, and lyricist Kauser Mukhtar contributed translations of select arias into Urdu and Punjabi, reflecting the cultural makeup of Bradford’s communities.

“Opera was conceived to challenge the artistic and social boundaries of its day. Setting Figaro in Bradford and giving it a Yorkshire voice allows audiences to hear the wit, warmth and humanity of Mozart’s characters in a completely fresh and accessible way. Their concerns about love, power and social change remain as alive today as they were in Mozart’s time,” said McMillan, per an official press release.

Prior to its London run, the production will tour to Bradford Arts Centre on Nov. 17 and 18, Slung Low in Leeds on Nov. 20, and Skipton Town Hall on Nov. 21.

Read Related Stories

• Bradford Opera Festival to World Premiere ‘The Last Machine Breaker: An Opera on Luddites, AI & Revolution’

• Bradford Opera Festival to Premiere New Adaptation of Rossini’s Most Famous Opera