Cosi Fan Tutti/Carmen, Canford School

WHEN invited by musical director Jonathan Prentice to review these semi-staged excerpts, I jumped at the chance to see if Canford's high reputation for musical quality was justified. It was.

Even adults can find opera difficult to sing so, given that the principal roles were filled by 6th formers, I expected that they would find the Mozart, in particular, a challenge, especially since they were singing in Italian. Whilst it was true that on one or two occasions there was some very slight hesitation, what I heard were voices of real quality from Charlotte Geering (Fiordiligi), Elizabeth Anderson (Dorabella), Freddie Miller (Ferando), Peter Stuart (Guglielmo) and Eric Lai (Don Alfonso), while Katie Bentley (Despina), although her voice was not quite as strong, showed an outstanding talent.

What also impressed in both operas was the amount of real feeling each performer put into his or her role.