Opera comes to Talaton tonight in a concert to help raise funds for a village church

The Royal Opera House will be beaming Tosca, via a seven metre screen, with a downlink from a satellite and a “huge” sound system, says concert organiser and host Paul Chivers who lives at Talaton House, in the centre of the village.

Paul’s garden will be transformed into a huge picnic site, as 500 guests arrive to eat, drink and listen to opera. 

Admission is free, but only by allocated tickets which all went in a week and was massively oversubscribed. The village shop was the booking office. “It’s been a real community effort,” said Paul who is keen to support the village church.

The concert will be raising funds for Talaton Parish Church’s Bell Restoration Fund, Help for Heroes and the C-Group, Royal Marines rehabilitation charity. Local businesses have sponsored the event.

The fundraising continues this weekend with a sponsored abseil at Talaton Church on Sat 20 July to raise funds for church bell repairs. The event, 11am-5pm, involves descending the church tower.

Abseilers will be raising money towards the £12,000 Church Bell Restoration Fund to repair the bell wheels and pulleys. Organisers are applying to various trusts and have already received some very generous donations but the sponsored abseil is the main fund raising event.

Registration and sponsorship forms are available from the Talaton Village Shop, EX5 2RQ, where the participant will be allocated a time slot. Children over 8 years may take part only if accompanied by an adult.

A £5 registration fee is required by all those who wish to abseil and they must each raise at least £30 minimum in sponsorship.  Slots are still available from lunchtime onwards. For the child or adult who raises the most money there will be a special prize! Refreshments are available all day with a bbq at 4pm in the church car park.

www.talatonparishcouncil.co.uk