FROM The Mikado to Puss in Boots, Kington Operatic has been in tune for half a century.

This year the society celebrates its 50th birthday having presented 17 different operas and 12 different pantomimes as well as numerous concerts in a variety of venues.

A production of The Pirates of Penzance in 1968 launched Kington and District Operatic Society (KADOS), so to mark this special milestone the players will be performing the comic opera in early November.

Professional tenor, Russell Painter will be returning to Kington to take the part of pirate apprentice, Frederic.

Secretary and producer, Lynne Owens congratulated the society on its achievements and recalled the progress made over the past decades. Enthusiasm for musical performance began at Kington in 1967 when a Women’s Institute choir put on a production of Oh, Oh Antonio, she explained.

The same group went on to perform HMS Pinafore in the same year, this time inviting husbands and friends to take the male roles.

By the following year, an open meeting was held to discuss forming an operatic society and more than 40 signed up.

In May 1968, the first strains from rehearsals for Pirates of Penzance were heard and 500 tickets – costing from three shillings and sixpence (35p) up to seven shillings and sixpence (75p) – were snapped up.

KADOS had struck a chord and one thousand tickets were sold for the following year’s production which was to cover five performances. Productions went on to make a healthy profit of more than £100, but a subsequent show made a heavy loss of £200.

Minutes from a meeting in 1973 recorded some tough talking from the committee. Mrs Owens said there was ‘plain speaking about the irresponsible way in which some members treated the return of scores’. Bad attendance at rehearsals was also noted and both producer and musical director pronounced that ‘Anyone not knowing the words and music six weeks before the show could not take part’.

The anniversary performance of The Pirates of Penzance takes place at Kington over the first weekend in November.

Said Mrs Owens: “To celebrate half a century of G and S entertainment, a quotation from The Gondoliers best sums up the aspirations of everyone in KADOS, who want to “… leave you with feelings of pleasure”.