lyricsyas In the next time we hear it, it's probably the most fun I've ever had, doing enough for to get an opportunity like this, I thought, that'll be great. I just love the kind of the physicality of it all. If I had my way, everybody in UCL would take pass in putting a not-pro on because I think you learn extraordinary lessons of responsibility and teamwork, you'll roll in the situation, your relationship to other participants and to the project itself, no other art form, it entails the breadth of ingredients that this does, or the richness of experience it offers. I find the story of Gennerville interesting, certainly. You've got this very religious, very pure side of the opera and the other side which is much darker. It's an opera with two different storylines that kind of merge into one and become a bit of a mess, but I always think the ending is a bit too perfect. University College Opera was first performed in 1951. The idea was to make a great series that I guess early on that unusual pieces were chosen and so it has always been. Now there's a great expectation out there in the music world to know what we're doing next or what we're going to do next time and I get bombarded with suggestions about how do you want to do this or do that. It has in a sense created quite a sort of forward-looking agenda out of its history and expectation over years. I mean it is Britain's most high-profile student opera. Last year was my first year doing an opera and that was daunting the first time because it's a professional theatre. I hadn't quite realised how big a theatre this was really. So it is exciting to have a really nice stage and yeah to perform in such a venue. I know there's also going to be national press here on the first night of the opera. It's getting quite nervous. Nervous and apprehensive certainly trying to fit in work around it is a big challenge and I've got my deadline for the dissertation during performance week. So I have to really balance out rehearsals on one side and work on the other. I do that by bringing in a book or my laptop and working on my dissertation whilst I'm not in a scene. I suddenly discover that you know the second oboe is the captain of the hockey team or you know stringer than get firsts or something. I guess it's a lot of bright people who do all sorts of things very well. I'm weighing up the idea of going into singing professionally so I get a kind of perspective of the professional world of singing which has been really useful for me to make decisions about my own future. Being part of a production like this is actually quite a special thing especially at UCL. I think it's the only place where the students get to work with professional opera singers. So it's a kind of a step towards a real life in that sense and you're treated as equals even though obviously we're just the students. The opera is run by you know a bunch of students but don't underestimate them. They're some of the most remarkable young people you'll ever meet.