Ellen Kent & Opera International presents the Chisinau National Opera; Aida by Verdi Opera House, Manchester Until Saturday (no performance Friday)

MANCHESTER'S favourite touring opera company, from Moldova in the former Soviet Union, were back in town with another sumptuous musical offering, performed in traditional costumes and settings, with singers trained in the great Eastern European and Soviet tradition.

Aida isn't the sort of opera you would normally see staged in Britain, being more of a favourite of the open air Italian ampitheatres which can hold camels, elephants and a cast of hundreds.

Yet the Chisinau company managed to combine the spectacle, on a smaller scale, as the intimate drama of people torn between hopeless love and duty to their country.

Verdi's stirring music is the backdrop for the struggle between Egypt and Ethiopia and there is some fine singing from Radames (Alexey Repchinski), the Egyptian soldier hero, and his secret lover Aida (Ludmila Magomedova), captured Ethiopian princess who is now a slave.

Liliana Lavric is a fine Amneris, the Egyptian princess who is Aida's rival for Radames and finally causes the downfall of the star-crossed lovers.

Vladimir Dragos's fine baritone brings the necessary gravitas to Aida's father, Amonasro, and again the other soloists and the chorus and orchestra rounded off a fine production.

Bellini's great bel canto opera, Norma, with its spectacular Stonehenge setting, is being performed on Friday.

John Griffiths