Well over 200 hundred people of all ages would have been preparing this very day to put on a massive, memorable, life-changing operatic production. And what is the magic ingredient crucial to making all this work: commitment. And by heaven, we were getting that in spades from everybody involved until all our lives were dramatically and irrevocably changed by a microbe.

But it didn’t quite come to a shuddering halt, as you can see with this podcast and with the little film which precedes it. Many of The Monster in the Maze Community carried on learning their lines from home and dared to show us what they have been doing on film. I did my bit, and have to say, didn’t find it that easy. And I’m supposed to know what I’m doing when it comes to singing and performing. I take my hat off to all those you can see and hear in the film, also including friends from Longborough Opera and Dutch National Opera. We are all in it together when it comes to Coronavirus and the performing arts. This film bears dramatic witness to that.

I know you will be affected by what you will now watch. We certainly have been as contributors.