大象传媒

In a new four part series Strictly judge and choreographer Bruno Tonioli talks about his great passion for opera.

'What's not to like?' says Bruno. 'Divine music, exquisite voices, passion, stories that take you to places you could never imagine'. Bruno hails from the Emilio Romagna region of Northern Italy - also the birth place of the great Guiseppe Verdi. Bruno's home town of Ferrara boasts its own opera house where a young Gioachino Rossini launched his career. 'Opera is in the Italian DNA, as children we were taught to sing Va Pensiero and La Donna e Mobile before we learnt nursery rhymes. It touches your soul. The effect of seeing and hearing something so perfect is magical.'聺

Bruno frequents the opera regularly both here and when back home in Italy and he has performed with Opera North as Bacchus the God of Wine in a production of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld - a role in which he wore little more than a loin cloth and a bunch of grapes!

In this opening programme Bruno's choices include Largo Al Factotum from the Barber of Seville by Rossini; Casta Diva from Norma by Bellini and the Guiseppe Verdi chorus that was almost adopted as the Italian National Anthem - Va Pensiero - from Nabucco.