THE DRAMA of a passionate Italian opera was recreated at Lumley Castle last week, when a stunt man plummeted more than 20ft from a hotel.

The famous 'leap of death' in Puccini's Tosca, where the main character commits suicide by jumping from a castle, was enacted at the hotel, near Chester-le-Street.

Stunt artist Rod Woodruff threw himself from the top of the large front doorway before a crowd of onlookers and landed safely on an airbag.

The stunt man has already appeared in films such as Indiana Jones 3, The Krays and Bhaji on the Beach and is said to be the first man to handstand on a moving train, be blown over by an exploding car and pole vault across the path of an oncoming train. He is planning to perform his death-defying leap again when Ellen Kent and Opera International perform the opera at the Sunderland Empire Theatre this week.

Kelly Ashford, spokeswoman for Opera International, said: "At the end of the opera, Tosca commits suicide because her lover has been executed.

So she sings this aria and runs up to a castle that we've had built on the stage and leaps to her death. As she comes up to the castle, she swaps with the stunt artist and he does the jump dressed as her. The jump is about five metres in the production."

Tosca is due to be performed this Thursday and Friday, from 7.30pm. The company will be performing Turandot at the Empire this Saturday. For tickets to either show, telephone 0870 607 7500.