“This will be a dream production, because we will have the whole of the England football team on stage acting as clowns on an imaginary pitch, and Fabio will be there as the director of the clown troupe. He is quite an amazing tenor, almost as good as the late Pavarotti,” Alan Titmunch, the production’s director in chief told the Times.

The opera will be themed in the style of a world cup match between England v Germany, and will plot the trials and tribulations of the Italian tenor trying to control and direct his clowns to perform various tasks. Most of the time the clowns just muck around but sometimes they make a breakthrough.

The opera has already caused a stir at the box office and all tickets have been sold out in less than a day.

“This is the most eagerly awaited opera we have ever staged here in Covent Garden and we must say, it is a true honour to have Mr Capello perform with such passion to the audiences,” Mr Titmunch added.

“The sound of the swarming bees is deafening. No one on the pitch can hear the referee blow his whistle and no one can hear the crowd cheering. The angry African bees seem to be attracted to the bright coloured football kits of the players and the bright clothes of the fans,” a FIFA match official told South Africa’s weekly, the Soweto Telegraph.

The bee swarms have invaded all of the stadiums where every world cup fixture is being held, and a number of people have been stung by the bees.

“Being stung by the bees was nothing, it was the bloody noise they made that really hurt. I’d rather be stung on my nut sack then listen to that racket all day,” Geoffrey Alcoa, a fan who travelled all the way from Holland said.

Roger Attenberry, a naturalist filming a BBC nature program in the Kruger national park said: “One of my assistants managed to capture a few bees for my analysis from the stadium in Johhanesburg. After studying them I have identified the bees as part of the Vuvuzelus Apis genus. A particularly aggressive and noisy strain of bee that is attracted to South African football matches.”