On this, their second visit to us, we were again enthralled by the same singers and a talented accompanist. Their programme was of course dominated by all but two of the 13 now available operas. Included too were Sullivan’s 'the Lost Chord', items from My Fair Lady, West Side Story etc.

Have you ever wondered why Strephon and the Duke don’t have solos in Iolanthe and Patience? Why doesn’t Wilfred sing until the Act 1 finale of Yeomen? Why did Robin have two songs in Act 2 of Ruddigore and sung neither of them? Laurence explained that a number of songs never made it to the final production or were cut within days or weeks of the opening night.

Over the years some of these songs have been found or re-constructed from limited data and recorded as bonus tracks on, now, long deleted recordings. Laurence's musically illustrated talk played a number of these recordings of rarely heard songs and explained the history as to why they were dropped or lost in the first place.

The twenty five Members of GOS entertained a full house (some who were late with their bookings had to be turned away) to a most enjoyable afternoon of G&S with the cast in lovely costumes and excellent voices.

We were treated to excerpts from Trial By Jury then a full concert performance of HMS Pinafore, with Alec Evans as Sir Joseph Porter, Ian Henderson as Captain Corcoran, Katie Plummer (pictured) as Josephine, Richard Arthur as Dick Dead-Eye. Jean Stevens was superb as the piano accompanist, and the whole afternoon was ably stage managed by Jill O'Regan.

Five young performers - Helena Condrey, Victoria Mulley, Alexander Carpenter, Horacio Lopez Redondo and Michael Pandazis, all from the New London Opera Group, gave an extremely enjoyable afternoon of "Gems from the Savoy Operas and other shows". A cornucopia of superb solos, duets and quartets.