JOHN RIGBY returns to West Yorkshire to conduct the Orchestra of Opera North’s New Year Viennese Whirl.

The popular annual concert will be at Huddersfield Town Hall on December 30 and Leeds Town Hall on December 31.

John will lead the orchestra in an afternoon of Viennese classics including selections from Strauss’s Die Fledermaus and Lehár’s Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow).

The celebrated annual concert in the Strauss dynasty’s home of Vienna has made their music synonymous with the New Year, and the Orchestra of Opera North’s homage to this regularly sells out.

Classic FM’s John Suchet will present the programme.

The Merry Widow by Strauss’s fellow Austrian Lehár had strong seasonal credentials from the start, having first been performed at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna on December 30 in 1905.

Completing the bill, Meine Lippen from his comic opera Giuditta, is another testament to the composer’s light touch and sparkling talent.

Kathleen Ferrier Award-winning soprano Jennifer France, who sang Lauretta in Opera North’s staging of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi earlier this year, is the soloist.

John Rigby began his globetrotting career at the University of Huddersfield, followed by the Royal Northern College of Music.

He has conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Hallé among others.

He is currently musical supervisor for The Phantom of the Opera US tour, for Les Misérables in Korea and London, and the London revival of Miss Saigon.

Both concerts begin at 3pm. Visit kirklees.gov.uk/townhalls or call 01484 223200 to book the Huddersfield concert. Visit leeds.gov.uk/townhall or call 0113 2243801 to book for the Leeds concert.