THE usual polished excellence of Trowbridge amateur Operatic Society is again on show at the Civic Hall this week as the company presents its third Rodgers and Hammerstein production "Carousel".

It is an exuberant but sensitive version of love and death on the coast of Maine in 1873, and it shows vividly how R and H convey the poignancy of life at all levels, whether their stories concern racial conflict during the Second World War (as it the local 1987 South Pacific) or, here, the problems of poverty and class in a fairground setting.

The audience is soon put in the mood as clowns, dancers and a strongman stroll along the aisles before the start of the show. The part of the penniless rogue Billy Bigelow ("Money thinks I'm dead") is played strongly by Paul Butler and he is well matched by the refreshing Jan Jenson, as Julie Jordan.

Joan Francis, a contralto of fine range and control, gives a superb rendering of "You'll never walk alone," and the standard of singing is uniformly superb.

In the first act the brass in the 28-piece orchestra overwhelmed the voices, but this was rectified in the second.

The other main parts are taken by Ann Walker, Kath Cowdroy, John Lindsay, Derek Self, Paul Morgan, Robert Knowles, Glanville Davies, Norma Pascall, Nicki Smith and Tony Lomax.

The producer is Deanna Capper and the musical director Philip Springate, with the orchestra led by Michael Oliver.

The society has done it again. The only dissonance comes in the use of the word amateur in its title. It applies in terms of personal profit, but that's all.

Peter Browne.