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Mid Wales Opera are back on the road with the sixth of their critically acclaimed SmallStages productions. This time it's Berlioz's hilarious Beatrice and Benedict , based on Shakespeare's much loved Much Ado About Nothing . 

Sung and spoken in English 

Beatrice and Benedict are both determined to stay single. Beatrice is a woman who despises men (especially Benedict) and Benedict can't abide women (particularly Beatrice). That is until their friends plot to bring them together and they both ‘accidentally' overhear whispers of each other's unrequited passion; the spark of love is ignited by gossip and quickly becomes a blazing wildfire. 

Berlioz's final opera sets to music the wild and illogical whirlwind of falling in love, bringing a rich warmth of invention to Shakespeare that virtually no other composer has achieved. Indeed, Berlioz's life-long passion for Shakespeare is evident throughout his miraculous score, radiant with love and sparkling with energy, and including the famous central nocturne duet, perhaps the most beautiful thing Berlioz ever wrote. 

MWO's production features six singers and four musicians, with an English singing translation by Amanda Holden, together with Shakespeare's original texts adapted by Richard Studer and a new chamber arrangement by Jonathan Lyness.