Newport's investment in this long-running music festival on its borders means that the city centre now hosts one of the concerts each year.

And there are none better to fill the Riverfront theatre with swelling sounds than the world-renowned chorus of Welsh National Opera.

Unleash them they did with the authority that comes from having to pitch their voices into a cavernous auditorium night after night on top of an orchestra.

WNO was founded over sixty years ago, when the majority of the chorus were amateurs, arriving for rehearsal and performance in Cardiff by bus, shared car or shanks' pony.

One of its first productions was Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, and its Easter Hymn was sung on this occasion - light years away from those early days - with soprano Fiona Harrison in the role of Santuzza.

It was part of a dramatic first half which opened with Wach auf from Wagner's The Mastersingers and included the Anvil Chorus from Verdi's Il Trovatore, both works enjoying success in the company's current repertoire.

Other chorus members stepped forward for solo roles, not least Meriel Andrew, Amanda Baldwin and Louise Ratcliffe as the three little maids from The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan, and Laurence Cole, complete with Cornish accent, as the hapless police sergeant in The Pirates of Penzance.

Chorus master Stephen Harris and accompanist James Southall exercised due order lightly enough to allow the personality of the choir and its irrepressible members to blossom. They’re a lively bunch and should be the subject of a preservation order.