SIXTY glorious years is being celebrated Italian style when Harpenden Light Operatic Society (HLOS) puts on The Gondoliers next week.

The Gilbert and Sullivan favourite is being performed in the Public Halls from Monday to next Saturday, October 9, and marks the diamond anniversary of HLOS which was formed by Mowbray Maw, Brian Chidell and Percy Claridge and has gone from strength to strength ever since.

The production is directed by one of the county’s most renowned directors John Hebden and the musical director is Roy Mathers.

The show is set in the 1950s, the year that HLOS was formed, but it still retains all the traditional elements expected from an immensely-popular Gilbert and Sullivan work.

The “happy ever after” plot revolves around two newly-married Venetian gondoliers who are informed by the Grand Inquisitor that one of them has just become the King of Barataria but only their foster mother knows which one.

As Barataria needs a king to put down unrest in the country, they travel there to reign jointly, leaving their wives behind in Venice until the foster mother can be found... and from that point a series of complications arise including the after-effects of a wedding in infancy and an unintentional bigamy.

The show starts at 7.45pm each evening with a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm on Saturday. Tickets priced from �8 to �12 can be obtained from the box office on 07817 3331150 or email hlostickets@live.co.uk