Bruno Tonioli At The Opera

In this new four-part series, Strictly Come Dancing judge and choreographer Bruno Tonioli talks about his great passion for opera.

Hailing 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. Bruno explains how opera is in the Italian DNA, and how as children they were taught to sing Va Pensiero and La Donna è Mobile before they learnt nursery rhymes.

Bruno frequents the opera regularly both here and when back home in Italy and 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 music 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.

Presenter: Bruno Tonioli
Producer: Bridget Apps for the BBC

Publicity contact: BBC Radio 2 Publicity