AberOpera has held a concert dedicated to the memory of Joanne Julier from Cerdd Ystwyth.

The concert was held at Holy Trinity Church on Friday, 21 February, in memory of Joanne, who died earlier this year.

AberOpera wanted to pay tribute to her as one of its founding members and to recognise the enormous contribution she made to musical and theatrical ife in Aberystwyth.

The opera group said: "She was one of the founder members of AberOpera, helping with suggesting pieces for inclusion in concerts and with the presentation of the items during performances.

"Although she preferred to 'hide in the chorus' she could be enticed out of it to sing her wonderful version of The Cats Duet (Rossini) when she showed off her talent for comedy as she to hissed and meowed her way through the whole piece."

Despite an unpromising weather forecast, the people who braved the expected rain were treated to a programme ranging from a glorious performance of The Easter Hymn (Allelujah) from Cavalleria Rusticana to The Two Gendarmes by Offenbach, a comic romp where two French policemen boast about their methods of raising extra pocket money. Not to be outdone, the ladies chorus flourished their feather boas as The Ladies of Maxims and were joined by one lucky tenor in You’ll Find Me at Maxims from The Merry Widow.

Those who came expecting a more classical programme were not disappointed, hearing music by Bellini, Verdi, Wagner, Kalman, Puccini, and Bizet as well as Welsh pieces by Elfed and Parry.

The opera group added: "AberOpera are very fortunate to be able to call on Steffan and Gruffydd Siôn: two immensely talented young euphonium players. The boys, despite not getting back to Aberystwyth until 1am from an eisteddfod where they won 1st and 2nd in their class still delighted the Holy Trinity audience with Largo al Factotum (Figaro here, Figaro there ….), The Flower Song from Lakmé and the duet from The Pearl Fishers by Bizet.

"It was particularly gratifying when Alfie a student, who thought he didn’t like opera but had decided to try the concert “out of curiosity” took the trouble to seek out one of the organisers and say how much he had enjoyed it."