A MARRIED couple will be hitting the high notes for an opera about the town.

Auditions took place last month for Swindon: The Opera, which will be performed at Steam on July 7 and 8.

And now producers have revealed that husband and wife, Alison and James Canning, of Lawns, will be playing the lead roles of Mary and George Eveley.

Alison, who is a Year 1 teacher at Beechcroft Infants School, said: “It will be fun to play the wife of my real husband, and pretty convenient for practising our lines.

“The characters start off about 40 years old, so pretty much like us, and they are both into singing. We are really excited, especially now we have seen the first song.”

The opera, which is being produced by the Janice Thompson Performance Trust after it was granted a £60,000 Jubilee Lottery grant, covers life in Swindon from 1952 to the present and centres around the fictional Eveley family.

Other cast members will include Harvey Cullis, David Phillips, Ellen Lawrence, Yvette Cummings, Mark Newton, Cathy Welch, Harry Apps, William Pearson, Stuart Dark, George LeCoyte, Andrew Johnson, Meghann Newcombe, Tilly Wale and Isobel Cassidy.

Alison and James, who have two children, are members of SALOS, the Swindon musical theatre company, and Alison said they had been keen to take part.

“The auditions were nerve-wracking because we had to do two songs in front of the panel, and a bit of dialogue,” she said.

“Everybody got the same bit of dialogue to do so we didn’t know what part we were auditioning for.”

The JTP singers will be providing the opera chorus. JTP trustee Matt Fox, who is writing the opera, said: “Selecting the cast was incredibly difficult due to the remarkable talent on display.

“We now have a superb cast who will tell Swindon’s story in a thoroughly enjoyable way.”

Composed by London-based Betty Roe MBE, the production will form part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

Everybody is being invited to send in anecdotes, stories, photographs and written observations from the last six decades.

Stories and photographs will be acknowledged at the event and may be included in the souvenir programme. Items can be taken to the Central Library in Regent Circus and all photographs will be returned to the lender.

Forming an adult community choir is next on the agenda for the production team.

Rehearsals begin on April 19 at St Barnabas Church, in Gorse Hill. Email swindontheopera@ gmail.com