AWARD-winning opera producer Ellen Kent returns after critically acclaimed tours of Madama Butterfly, Traviata and Rigoletto with two new productions, boasting magnificent new sets. Carmen with the heat and passion of Spain and Tosca with the grandeur and power of Rome.

A magnificent, traditional, fully-staged opera, Tosca is set against the dramatic landscape of Rome and the Napoleonic Wars and the corrupt Italian regime of that time. Directed as a Gothic Victorian horror story, Puccini’s Tosca is an epic tale of true love and treachery featuring torture, murder and suicide alongside some of opera’s best-known music.

This most popular of operas, with its tender and moving arias Recondita Armonia, Vissi d’Arte and E Lucevan le Stelle, is a heady mixture of true love, torture and treachery, with two of the best roles for tenor and soprano, plus a pure evil villain as the baritone.

The stunning new set for Carmen reflects the magnificent architecture of Seville with its Roman and Moorish influences, which includes the main square, the bull ring and the tobacco factory, which was reputedly one of the most important in Europe.

Carmen is the story of the bewitching gypsy girl whose tantalising beauty lures a soldier to desertion and leads to her own murder. The opera includes some of the most evocative and best-loved melodies in opera –The Habanera, The Seguidilla, The Flower Song, The Chanson Bohème and perhaps the best-known baritone aria of all The Toreador’s Song.

Tosca will be at Malvern Theatres on Friday, March 25 and Carmen on Saturday, March 26. To book, call the box office on 01684 892277 or visit malvern-theatres.co.uk