Soprano Lesley Garrett sings Bizet’s ‘Habanera’ in dramatic shopping centre flashmob

14 April 2025, 11:04

Shoppers in Bradford are surprised with glorious music, fronted by an A-list soprano, at Broadway Shopping Centre.

Shoppers in Bradford have been surprised by a flashmob of operatic proportions.

In this spontaneous public performance, caught on film last Friday, Broadway Shopping Centre erupts with song, as dozens of singers pipe up among the crowd, following the cues of iconic operatic soprano, Lesley Garrett.

Garrett starts proceedings, singing solo at the top of the ‘Habanera’ from Bizet’s famous opera, Carmen, before around 50 football fans, placed strategically through the crowd at the shopping centre’s food court, join in.

They perform a three-minute version of the famous opera aria to the delight of onlookers. Football fans to the last, they also add their characteristic football chants and hollers to this unique take on the 1875 aria.

The flashmob is comprised of a group of football fans-turned-opera singers, dubbed ‘the Bantams’, who are followers of Bradford City AFC and who are currently taking part in Bantam of the Opera, a project celebrating Bradford being the 2025 UK City of Culture.

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They are being taught to sing opera, with Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, soprano Lesley Garrett and sporting legend Chris Kamara supporting the project.

The uplifting flashmob is the result of just six rehearsals, and is the Bantam of the Opera choir’s first ever live performance.

Carmen is an opera about passion and jealousy, composed by the French composer, Georges Bizet, in 1875. ‘Habanera’ is one of the most famous and enduringly popular arias from the opera.

Hailing from Thorne in South Yorkshire, opera singer Lesley Garrett has performed in all of the famous opera houses of the world and was awarded the CBE for services to music in 2002.