New Sussex Opera offer British premiere of Saint-Saëns' The Silver Bell

Spokeswoman Fran Mortimer said: “A poor, tormented artist, consumed with passion and ambition, is given a silver bell that will provide all his heart desires. But in this story from the librettists behind Faust and The Tales of Hoffmann things could never be so simple. It is a fantastical and compelling tale, illuminated by a sumptuous and sensual score: NSO presents an unmissable first chance to discover this masterpiece by Saint-Saëns, one of the greatest composers of his time.

“Our director is Paul Higgins and our conductor Toby Purser, as we had last year for The Dragon of Wantley. We are joined again by Benjamin Poore as our dramaturg and Mollie Cheek as our designer. Leif Tse is our assistant conductor, repetiteur and chorus master.

“We start our tour of this production on Bank Holiday Monday, May 5 at 4pm in All Saints in Lewes, then Blackheath Halls in London on May 11, Devonshire Park, Theatre Eastbourne on May 18, The Pavilion Theatre Worthing on June 1 and the Theatre Royal Winchester on June 8, all performances 4pm.

“In Vienna Conrad, an artist, has fallen for his muse, the dancer Fiametta, who is the model for his painting of Circé.”

Namiko Gahier-Ogawa performs the central role in the production.

“Namiko is a French-Japanese dancer and choreographer who grew up in Paris. She studied literature at Paris VII Diderot University and classical piano at the Conservatoire and went on to obtain a national degree in jazz dance, trained at Rick Odums International Institute of Paris and at the Alvin Ailey School of New York. She has performed as a dancer in operas directed by Nigel Lowery, Nikolaus Lehnhoff and Pierre Audi for companies including Dutch National Opera, Opera Vlaanderen, English National Opera and Baden-Baden Festival.

“We can think of very few other operas where a leading character is a dancer rather than a singer: Tadzio in Britten's Death in Venice is one which occurs to us.

“For this UK premiere production of The Silver Bell by Camille Saint- Saëns, New Sussex Opera Chorus is joined by St Paul’s Sinfonia.”

The cast is Conrad – Anthony Flaum, Hélène Sky – Ingram, Spiridion – Arshak Kuzikyan,

Rosa – Lucy Farrimond, Bénédict – Harun Tekin, Circé-Fiametta – Namiko Gahier-Ogawa

All performances at 4pm. Running time approximately three hours including interval.