PASSIONS rise and sparks fly when Hatstand Opera return to Frinton. Their show, Romance at the Opera, features a mixed bouquet of melting moments and divine declarations of love, including romantic scenes, arias and songs with a love-struck Puccini poet, flighty wife and a naughty diplomat.

Hatstand Opera have been delighting audiences since their first appearance with the Frinton Arts and Music Society in the late Nineties. Since 2005, the company has performed almost every year for the Frinton Mission’s Marquee on the Greensward event.

Director Kirsty Young is thrilled to be making a return visit. She says: “There really is no venue like the Marquee on the Greensward. It has to be the most relaxing place to perform.

“On a summer’s evening, with the sides open to the cliff-top area, we see what the audience don’t – tourists and dog walkers wandering by, stopping for a moment and staying for 20 minutes or more.

“Young people start by peeking inside, thinking ‘that’s not for me’, and then sit near the marquee for the entire show, pretending not to listen!”

“We know every creak and billow of the marquee by now. We’ve baked in summer heat, swayed in sea breezes, and as performers, we’ve always had a great time with the best audiences in a marquee in Essex, by far.”

The show is on July 28 at 7.30pm. Tickets are £7 from Frinton Free Church and St Mary’s Parish offices, or from the marquee from July 27.