Cyril and Libbye Hellier returned to the stage for the title roles of Humperdinck's "Hänsel und Gretel", for The New Opera Theatre, New Orleans. In the 1988-89 season, they alternated as Bastienne in the child Mozart's "Bastien und Bastienne" for the same ensemble. In the final season of The New Opera Theatre, they appeared in a Benefit Concert also featuring Natalia Rom. In April 1991, the Helliers were soloists in Part III of Handel's "Messiah" (in the Foundling Hospital Anthem version), at St Francis de Sales Cathedral, Houma. In October 1992, the sopranos made their New York debuts, as Kindred (Cyril) and Cousin (Libbye)
The Parlour reviewer in "Opera" magazine dismissed the music as "feeble in content, too long, and mis-timed in its relation to the dramatic action". The BBC, broadcasting a recording made at the Odeon Theatre, Llandudno, in November of the same year, described the première as "highly successful", and said that the opera, despite being Williams' first, displays a "confident professionalism and the theatrical awareness". The Parlour The Parlour is the only opera by the Welsh composer Grace Williams; a comic opera in one act, it is based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant. Although written in 1961, it was not