Rossini’s The Barber of Seville has been adapted into Yorkshire dialect by poet Ian McMillan for a premiere performance at the first Bradford opera festival next month. The event on 23 November at St George’s Hall will feature the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra and Bradford Festival Choral Society, with Alex Chisholm directing and Ben Crick conducting.

“It is an opera that was just made for the poetic tones of The Sublime Tyke Talk,” McMillan said.

Alex Chisholm added: “Six years in the making, we are delighted to be presenting the first-ever Bradford opera festival. And Ian McMillan’s version of The Barber of Seville is the perfect piece to start with – Yorkshire to the core, it has love, marriage, class, rebellion, and some great tunes.”