Opera and dance combine in this story with a dark heart and strong contemporary resonance.

Susanna is the victim of two powerful, predatory men out to destroy her reputation. As society swallows their lies and public opinion turns, she holds fast to her truth. It’s a compelling story for our times in a brand-new production by director Olivia Fuchs.

This collaboration between Opera North and Phoenix Dance Theatre is set against some of Handel’s most memorably melodic music, with powerful choral moments for the Chorus of Opera North as well as touching solo arias.

When struggling poet Rodolfo meets Mimì, a quiet seamstress who lives upstairs, it’s love at first sight. But life isn’t easy when it’s freezing outside and the only fuel for the fire is a page from your latest poem. With empty pockets but full hearts, will their love be enough to see them through?

This acclaimed production from director Phyllida Lloyd is a must-see whether you’re a big-time opera fan or are dipping your toe into opera for the first time. Puccini’s glorious music, performed live by the Orchestra of Opera North, speaks straight to the heart of anyone who has ever been young, loved and lost.

Join us on the set of daytime cookery programme Pass the Spoon where hosts June Spoon and Phillip Fork – assisted by a manic-depressive egg and a highly-strung banana – must prepare a meal for Mr Granules, a monstrously demanding diner whose appetite knows no bounds.

Premiered in Glasgow in 2011 and served up by composer David Fennessy, artist David Shrigley and director Nicholas Bone, Pass the Spoon is a darkly comic feast of words (spoken and sung), music and puppetry, made with decidedly adult ingredients.

Shrigley’s surreal humour is matched by the wit of Fennessy’s score, which is as sharp as the knives wielded by the disturbingly ecclesiastical butcher who supplies Spoon and Fork with tasty meat.

It’s supposed to be the happiest day of Figaro and Susanna’s lives, but this is opera, so there’s plenty of time for some plot twists before they say ‘I do’. With Count Almaviva looking set to make a move on the bride-to-be, the young couple must hatch a shrewd plan to secure their happy ending. Cue a whirlwind of secret scheming and surprise revelations.

This brand-new production of The Marriage of Figaro ?re-imagines the mischief in a quintessential modern country home. Mozart’s music, performed live by the Orchestra of Opera North, fizzes with fun and plumbs the depths of emotion. It all adds up to an invitation that’s too good to turn down.

Fisherman Peter Grimes is an outsider, torn between the dream of a conventional life with Ellen Orford, a local schoolteacher, and the truth of his own nature – at times visionary, at others violent. For the rest of the community, he is a channel for their worst fears and their deepest desires.

Britten’s music is rich in emotion as well as brilliantly theatrical. In Phyllida Lloyd’s acclaimed production, it all adds up to an utterly absorbing experience, one which has garnered five-star reviews and won the South Bank Show Opera Award after it was first performed.