Opera and a typewriter for the New Year

Elena Sancho from San Sebastian is a graduate of the Escuela Superior de Canto in Madrid and of London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

A soprano, she received the Opernwelt award for best young artist of the year in 2015/16 from the Deutsche Oper in Düsseldorf. She has since gone on to take roles such as Maria in West Side Story, and she is the invited soloist for the Balearic Symphony Orchestra's traditional New Year concert.

The programme is a varied one. There's a good deal of Strauss (Johann father and son) as well as the likes of Donizetti - from 'Linda di Chamounix', which premiered in Vienna in 1842. Linda is the soprano lead for this operatic melodramma set in Chamonix in the French Alps.

Adding to an eclectic mix, there is also Leroy Anderson's 'The Typewriter', which was recorded by the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1953. This piece famously features a typewriter as a percussion instrument. It will need to be well miked up!

There are two performances, the first in Palma and the second in Manacor on January 2.