Seville’s old town is bustling with immortal characters from the world of opera, present and past. How many plazas separate the feudal estate of the Commendatore from the house of Dottor Bartolo? Where does a grumbling Leporello wait for Don Giovanni before witnessing a fatal duel? Which balcony did Figaro and Almaviva climb with a ladder in order to rescue Rosina from the house of her guardian? How far from the town centre is the palace of the Count, where a happy matrimonial ending has turned to heartbreak for Countess Rosina, who is forced to endure her husband’s infidelity until Figaro and especially his Susanna manage to resolve the situation to
everyone’s satisfaction? What road did the minister take to the nearby prison, thus sounding the trumpet signal that gives the heroic Leonore, disguised as Fidelio, a crucial advantage in rescuing her husband Florestan from certain death? And where along the city walls is the tavern of Lillas Pastia, in which the seductive Carmen wants to dance the seguidilla? — Seville has been imagined and re-imagined as a focal point throughout operatic history, oscillating between the tragic and comic, between human frailties and the seemingly superhuman.