Aria ready? Opera fans look forward to musical treat Falkirk Trinity Church later this year

The show will be pulling up at Falkirk Trinity Church, in Manse Place, on Sunday, May 26, for two performances at 4pm and 6pm and audiences can anticipate some snippets of Don Giovanni and The Merry Widow.

Pop-up Opera was originally inspired by the ancient Japanese art of Kamishibai, which roughly translates as “paper story”, a form of entertainment where itinerant storytellers travelled between small communities, telling traditional folk tales using a set of small paintings to accompany the narrative.

Scottish Opera’s productions use ten specially created illustrations to help the performers – storyteller Allan Dunn, singers Jessica Leary and Andrew McTaggart, cellist Andrew Drummond Huggan and guitarists Sasha Savaloni and Ian Watt – present the story.

Jane Davidson MBE, Scottish Opera’s director of outreach and education, said: “This summer, the Pop-up Opera company are touring to schools and community halls across the country, with a blend of weekday visits to primary schools and weekend performances in public venues, including at Perth Festival of the Arts, Dumfries and Galloway Arts Festival, and St Magnus International Festival.

‘We journey to 18th-century Venice with Don Giovanni, presenting a cleverly condensed version of Mozart’s ever-popular opera, packed full of dramatic confrontations brought about by Don Giovanni’s malevolent scheming which results in confusion, despair and violence for everyone he meets. We then head to the Parisian Embassy of Pontevedro for Lehár’s comic operetta The Merry Widow, which follows a wealthy woman’s search for true love.”

Visit the website for tickets.