OPERA North has announced its main-stage programme for the next 12 months in Leeds.

The opera company will present its productions at the Grand Theatre, as well as touring to other northern cities.

There will also be a year-long programme of symphonic orchestral concerts, along with a programme of classical, jazz, folk and world music in the Howard Assembly Room, Leeds.

The new opera season features six new productions, including Britten’s masterly Billy Budd and Rimsky-Korsakov’s rarely-performed The Snow Maiden.

Opera North’s season opens with the return of a much-loved classic, Der Rosenkavalier, with its depiction of age and experience set against the hopes and dreams of expectant young love.

Aleksandar Markovic conducts Strauss’s beguiling, post-Wagnerian score, with a cast including Ylva Kihlberg as the Marschallin and Helen Sherman as Octavian.

Staged in a diptych with Il tabarro, a new production of Puccini’s Suor Angelica is directed by Michael Barker-Caven. French soprano Anne Sophie Duprels takes the title role.

Orpha Phelan directs a brand new production of Britten’s Billy Budd – an opera which was last seen on the Opera North stage over two decades ago.

During next winter, storytelling and the perennial appeal of folklore takes centre stage in three new productions of operatic fairy-tales: Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel and Rossini’s Cinderella (La Cenerentola).

Opera North said that with work drawn from both popular and lesser-known repertoire, the 2016/17 season would give full rein to the versatility of the company’s full-time core ensembles.

Visit leedsgrandtheatre.com or call 0844 8482700 for further information and to book tickets.