A contemporary opera in Yorkshire, with music by Russell Sarre, sees two rival ice cream vending families face off.

A plague on both your ice cream vans! A new operatic retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet will pit two ice cream vending families against each other in Ice Cream: The Opera. The performances will take place in City Park, using two ice cream vans.

Ice Cream: The Opera is a joint production between Skipton Building Society Camerata and Freedom Studios with a libretto by Yorkshire Post columnist Ian McMillan and music written by Australian composer Russell Sarre. Telling the story of two families who have been engaged in a turf war for generations – with lovers Romano and Geetha caught in the middle – the opera will be just 30 minutes long.

^{Ice Cream: The Opera. Photo Joe Armitage, Boneshaker Photography.}

“Traditional opera can last for hours and while there is a place for that it can put people off,” McMillan told the Yorkshire Post. “I guess this is our way of luring people in and by performing it in City Park we will hopefully catch people unawares as they...