2007-03-30 - 3:38 p.m.

I was going to write full entries about Mumbai and Bangalore and the shameless luxury in which we were cocooned for those few days, but it seems a bit much, what with the obscene poverty and begging and everything�just to say that India was overwhelming in every way possible and I want to go back and not be in the PR emotion vacuum.

But for now, the opera owns my ass. At least for the next few weeks. I am assimilating into black slave life quite well, and have my close harmony singing whipped into shape � at least to a point where you can�t tell I�m not a natural tenor, which is the most I could hope for, really.

We�re now working with the full company, which includes famous opera singers and world class conductors who shout at you with their hair flapping all over the place, and you�d frankly be disappointed if they didn�t, despite the artistic ferocity.

The cast is truly international, with Americans, French, Germans and even people from Hampshire. There are one or two of us white idiots, but we have been happily accepted, and I even pretend to understand the patois that seems to be the lingua franca, even between the ballet dancers and orchestra. My complicated handshakes are coming on a treat.

The (Italian) director asks the cast to draw on feelings of racial pride a fair bit, talking about Africa a lot and mentioning �Roots� about once an hour. It gets a mixed reception. One of the older black actors was chatting to me and confessed, �I�ve got no idea what she�s on about half the time � I�ve never been to Africa and I can�t even understand what the black guys here are on about half the time.�

It�s assumed the songs have been learned (this is a big assumption) and now we�re working through the staging � no mean feat with a cast this size. Of course, we�re still doing all this in a dusty rehearsal space in south London, but from next week we�ll be stepping into one of the most prestigious venues in Europe. I keep thinking they�ll stop me on the way in having realised their mistake.

13 days to go.