AS part of its spring season Somerset Opera will be performing in Milverton’s Victoria Rooms on Saturday evening (March 16).

They will be presenting their raucous new production of ‘W.S Gilbert? This was your Life’.

The show is chock full of everybody’s favourite songs and melodies from Gilbert and Sullivan’s extensive repertoire, more than 25 of them in total.

And they are sewn together in a new, mad-cap story by D’Oyly Carte’s own Robert Traynor.

While the duo’s operas are very well known to people, sometimes overlooked is the occasionally stormy relationship between playwright Gilbert and composer Sullivan in their long collaboration.

Gilbert often felt undervalued and Sullivan longed to be regarded as a much more ‘serious’ composer.

Robert Traynor has put together a highly amusing ‘history’ of the partnership, using Gilbert’s own words in many places, and illustrating the whole thing with highly appropriate songs and quotations from the beloved operas throughout.

Traynor will perform the role of Gilbert, together with soloists and chorus from Somerset Opera, a registered charity which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year after it was formed by Brian Cresswell in 1974.

The group’s spring tour began on Thursday (March 14) in Ilminster, moving on to Edington on Friday before hitting Milverton.

Next week, performances will also be given in Minehead, Stogumber, Stogursey, Bishops Lydeard, and finishing in Taunton School.

A spokesperson said: “Expect sumptuous singing, stupendous story-telling, and sensational silliness.

“Certainly, an evening not to be missed for all fans of Gilbert and Sullivan.”

Tickets for the Milverton performance cost of £10 each and are available by calling Bek on 07946 627987 or by emailing to [email protected].

The doors will open at 7 pm for a 7.30 pm start and there will be a bar available both before the performance and again during the interval.