As reported on the pages of The Stage - famed British soprano, Lesley Garrett, will be presenting a new series on Sky Arts titled 20 operas to see before you die. If your death is tragically imminent and you simply cannot rely on a performance of La Boheme turning up at your town hall, there is no need to grow concerned as Sky Arts will be broadcasting a different opera each week, including Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Bizet’s Carmen.

Garrett will be presenting each episode, sharing her experiences of performing some of the featured works, and discussing them with each show’s composer. The one-time Mother Abbess in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage production of Sound of Music (which a certain art blog writer was fortunate enough to see over the weekend, although this year the role of Mother Abbess is being ably filled by the powerful Margaret Preece), Garrett hopes that the season “encourages people to sample opera and [will] stir up debate about the choice of operas we think they simply cannot afford to miss.”

ArtsWom haven’t been able to track down the full list of twenty operas, but with the series due to start on February 4th 2008, we expect to be able to fill you in soon.