'Tis the sea­son for opera and Christ­mas car­ols with dra­mat­ic so­pra­no Anne Fridal. <!--break--> Hav­ing re­cent­ly re­turned from singing at the Tako­ma church on the in­vi­ta­tion of Patrick D Mc Coy, mu­sic jour­nal­ist of the Kennedy Cen­tre in Wash­ing­ton, DC, Fridal will present her an­nu­al Christ­mas con­cert on Sat­ur­day at Christchurch in Cas­cade at 8 pm.

This year's con­cert will fea­ture guest per­former Shel­by Mitchell, the nine-year-old vo­cal won­der from this year's Mu­sic Fes­ti­val, who won the open class and re­ceived the Bernadette Lough­lin cup for the open gospel class. Ten-year-old ace pan­nist, Luke Walk­er, al­so a Mu­sic Fes­ti­val win­ner, will al­so thrill the au­di­ence with so­lo pieces of Christ­mas mu­sic and a duet with Mitchell.

Mar­vin Smith is no stranger to the stage in Trinidad. Re­mem­bered for his white suit, debonair look and dis­tinc­tive voice, ren­der­ing Some En­chant­ed Evening from the mu­si­cal South Pa­cif­ic at the 2008 Mu­sic Fes­ti­val, Smith will grace the stage with dra­mat­ic songs and arias for bari­tone. He has toured with Fridal, and has won rave re­views for his por­tray­al of Joseph in Geral­dine Con­nor's mu­si­cal dra­ma, Car­ni­val Mes­si­ah, which was per­formed at Hare­wood Cas­tle in Eng­land.

Fridal's con­cert would not be com­plete with­out Guin­ness World record hold­er for the longest pi­ano-play­ing marathon, Dr Charles Brun­ner, who re­cent­ly com­plet­ed 111 hours 11 mins and 11 sec­onds of play­ing at the Crowne Plaza Ho­tel on No­vem­ber 11. The pro­gramme will in­clude opera, or­a­to­rio, a med­ley of pop­u­lar Christ­mas car­ols, and San­ta promis­es to de­liv­er his presents ear­ly this year, his first stop be­ing Christchurch.

For tick­et in­for­ma­tion, call 766-9300, 763-8681, or vis­it Cleve's Record Shop on Fred­er­ick Street, Port-of-Spain.