Walford Hughes describing performing at Aberystwyth's Coilseum

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Transcription: W: The opera, now I know a thing or two about this because of my Grandfather, my Grandmother, my Mother and my Father. My mother's sister Aunty Elinor and my sisters had great fun dressing up in smart clothes and dressing up and all that nonsense. They were really in the thick of it all the time and they were singing all the time. I can remember one of them as a Sargent police man, in the Pirate of Penza's. Oh! It was great! We were singing all the choruses and the songs for months afterwards; having learned them from my Uncle, you know. C: Did you ever preform in the Operas? W: Oh! Yes! Oh, blimey! C: Well tell me about preforming at the Coliseum... W: Oh, tremendous excitement, yes! We put in a tremendous amount of time! C: Tell me what it felt like to walk onto the Coliseum stage... W: Oh, excitement! Excitement galore! I can remember when acting in Patience, you know the opera Patience? I was a soldier, and they were real swords, they were real swords! We were lashing and waving them at one another in the sword fighting! *laughs* Then of course the Orchestra would strike up, and we would watch the conductors face; weather he was pleased or not. But the swords were very good, very good! We had some fine singers and tremendous ovations, tremendous ovations! If you were a soloist you would warm the heart of the audience with a love song from one of the operas, it could go on and go on and go on, and the crowd, they couldn't have enough of it. It was marvellous! The Coliseum was ringing to the rafters with the sounds of people cheering and clapping and stamping their feet and doing everything they could to let the singers know that they had gone down well. C: That sounds beautiful! W: Oh! It was! It was! It was worth all the effort after all the work put into it.