Internationally-successful soprano Julia Gooding returned to the Beccles church where she started her glittering career to raise £1000 towards the roof fund.

By TONY CLARKE

Internationally-successful soprano Julia Gooding returned to the Beccles church where she started her glittering career to raise £1000 towards the roof fund.

The triumphant concert saw her joined by Elizabeth Kenny on the lute-like theorbo and Reiko Ichise, on the viola da gamba.

In the setting of the St Michael's Church these instruments complemented the voice beautifully, transporting an enraptured audience effortlessly through a programme which included songs by Purcell and works by Handel, Monteclair and Marais.

Baroque music demands the utmost clarity and accuracy, but this was an expressively performed programme which, while it majored heavily on romance, contained all the emotions from anger and despair through to joy and humour.

The prolonged ecstatic applause and cries of “encore” hailed an unqualified success.