2006-10-11 - 8:24 a.m.

About four months ago, I stepped into a nondescript church hall in south London and croaked out something vaguely resembling a tune in front of well-to-do chap who turned out to be an internationally renowned conductor.

Somewhere between then and now, I was taught by increasingly exasperated experts to at least look like I could sing and dance a bit, and pronounce my consonants like my LiFe DePenDeD on iT.

Last night, we had dress rehearsal in front of about 100 people, and for the first time, everything came together�the giant fish, the flamethrower, the fireworks, the flying heroes, the orchestra, the choirs, the bird children, the 40 of us dancing at a Jewish wedding.

Cut to tonight, and the opera opens in a brand new London theatre at the start of the first of ten sold out houses.

God knows I haven�t done very much in my life that I�m that proud of, and I�m only a bit part and we only do four numbers and I will no doubt fall off the stage in a bout of embarrassing rank amateurism, and I know it�s not that spectacular in the big scheme of things, and there�s no money or fame (though I think we get a free beer tonight) and people have said �Why are you doing it?� Well, I just thought it would be good, that�s all.