AMADOU & MARIAM AT THE MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

That this House recognises that the Manchester International Festival has earned a well-deserved reputation for innovation and imaginationas a festival of original cultural works; isaware that the blind Malian singers, Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia, had long housed the ambition to perform in total darkness in order that their audience should also experience the sensation of their music without sight; knows that this opportunity was denied to them on previous occasions; recognises the cultural bravery of the Director and Producer, Marc-Antoine Moreau and Christine Gettins, Festival Director, Alex Poots and General Director, Simon Mellor on accepting the undoubted challenge of staging `Eclipse'; congratulates Mariam, Amadou and their musician colleagues for an extraordinary contribution to the festival; and thanks them for their contribution in enriching the world's music over so many years.