I'm very pro presenting the best music I can to the widest audience possible.

Opera is credible drama now, and it costs less than going to a football match. What have you got to lose?

That was when I realised that music is the most profound, magical form of communication there is.

What people really should be able to be confident in is that the standards of music- making that classically trained musicians present is elite, it is the best and all of us as artists should be committed to that.

Nobody inspired me more than Julie Andrews, who is a classically trained soprano herself.

And woven into the fabric of this harsh existence was music.

I'm engaging my diaphragm as I'm speaking to you right now.