Sir.-On behalf of the Basingstoke Amateur Operatic Society (BAOS), I would like to thank the people of Basingstoke who supported us in our recent production of The Mikado.

When we embarked upon this project and decided, for the first time, to modernise a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, we felt that, to some traditionalists, it may not be to their liking.

However, we continued down the road of modernising and have been delighted with the generous responses.

We have received many verbal congratulations, along with letters and e-mails in support of our show.

This, we feel, shows the cleverness of Gilbert and Sullivan's writings, in that their wonderful operettas can be updated without spoiling the overall storyline.

Our production costs somewhere between £25,000 and £30,000 to put on, so without you, our audience, and very generous sponsorship, we would find it extremely difficult to survive.

So a big thank you to you all, and we hope to see you again for our next musical, Anything Goes, which we will be performing in March 2006.

If you are interested in joining us for this production, visit our website www.baos.org or ask for contact details at the Haymarket Theatre.

-Caroline Price (chairman), Basingstoke Amateur Operatic Society.