THIS talented group of eight singers, actors and musicians performed 'Una Fiaba Cantata', a 'Christmas Tale in Song'.

Freely adapted from Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol', the story was given an innovative treatment by this outstanding young ensemble from Brescia in Italy.

Sponsored by the Italian Consulate in Manchester, before an invited audience, the narrator Fernanda Calati, took us to a sound landscape of Dickensian London.

She vividly conjured up Scrooge, while Jacob Marley, Davide Rocca, descended from high above our heads, to the accompaniment of his rattling chains, and bells, the musicians adding sound effects as well as evocative music.

Rocca's rich, deep baritone voice chilled, as the bringer of dire warnings and ghostly apparitions.

Jazz singer, Piergiorgio Pardo singing the role of the Ghost of Christmas Past, added a surreal, yet pleasing, element.

Soprano, Sachiko Yanagibashi, as the Ghost of Christmas Present, brought the fire of Christmas cheer to all except the skinflint Scrooge.

The group's violinist, Alessandro Alexovits, wrote the music for this cantata. It deserves a far wider hearing. Why have our own classical composers neglected this tale? What a fabulous Christmas show, accessibly combining the spoken word, wonderful songs and theatrical staging. Magnificent.

GRUPPO CARONTE

Bridgewater Hall, Manchester