Swansea City Opera (formerly Opera Box)

This jewel of an opera is best known for the famous Flower Duet, which has become one of the most familiar numbers any composer, in any genre, has ever written, even used by our national airline on TV ads as the peaceful accompaniment to a jetliner floating through wispy clouds!

As so often with operas that become famous for a particular tune however, Lakmé contains many other hidden musical gems including the stratospheric and challenging Bell Song.

Like other French operas of the period, it captures the ambience of the Orient seen through Western eyes and, topically for today, tells of religious tensions and conflict leading to personal sacrifice, heartbreak and death.