Future Classic Women Awards – Monique Klongtruadroke & Jenny Miller

Hello and welcome to Future Classic Women Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte, on Women's Radio Station, the program where we search for the most amazing new female artists on the classical panorama. Today on Future Classic Women Awards we have two very special guests. One is fantastic soprano Monique Oh my God. Monique? Can I help you with that last name? Clongtruaudrome. No, I can read it, but I don't necessarily realize I cannot say that. I'll just call you— It's very difficult. I'll just call you Monique, but please, you know, finish up with just your name so that everybody knows it's you. And opera director Jenny Miller from the Barefoot Opera. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. So we met. Last week on my birthday, actually, on your performance in London of The Barber of Sevilla, a beautiful opera. And we had last week— no, two weeks ago, yes, because we had last week Dora Sorrentino. Dora, which role were you singing last time? Berta. Berta, that is the maid in the opera. Berta. And today we got Monique, who is actually Rosina, the main character from the opera. So, Strezia, I'm going to ask you, Rosina or Monique, how hard it is to sing Rosina? Oh, it was really a role that I wanted always to sing in my life. So I thought this was a good occasion to study it and to put it on stage. It was the first time? It was, yeah, the first time. I was really happy to be working with Jenny because I worked with her before and I like her style, her direction style. And I thought it would be— it would be— it would have been really fun to do this. It was indeed very funny. I loved the staging and everything, the costume. It was a mix between kind of past and modern with Don Bartolo having a proper suit and kind of almost fantasy. Absolutely. Yeah. And you had this background of the fabric of the toys, Fabrica dei Giocattoli, am I right? A museum. A museum of the toys. A toy museum. Written in Italian somehow. Where did you find that? Oh, well, we Googled it. No way. That is impressive. So, you know, so the staging was quite innovative in the sense that you only had a fixed setting? One set, really, but also very basic materials. Barefoot Opera uses found objects, and so we're a very eco-friendly company. And we felt we— I had a big old oil drum that I found actually for another production that, you know, was originally full of palm oil or whatever it was full of. Oh, wow. And that became Rosina's the sort of the doll's stand that she comes alive from that stand. Yeah. Oh, wow. For example, it was all found objects and recycled material. Oh, that's very impressive. Same with the costumes too. Really? Yeah. Yeah. There were the Rosina's dress with the little sequins and her curious little— that was made of two different costumes. One was an actual 1950s dress. Oh, wow. And one— and then there was some, I don't know, bits from another costume. Yeah. And then it's impressive. You, you know, you have to fit them as well on the artist. I think one of the interesting things about this production is because we were touring, so all these things had to be adapted to different stages. Yeah. And that really worked well in many different venues. So, well, it's a really interesting challenge because traditionally you have a floor plan. Yeah. And you know exactly how you're going to light your show. And this is what a proper big company does. Absolutely. You know exactly where and exactly what— this will go here and that piece of set will go there and the lighting will be like this. But this is a very different way, approach, where there's always an element of improvisation because you show up at the venue and say, oh, we better put the stand here and we better put that other thing there. And it affects what we do, how we respond, how we move. Sometimes it's harder, sometimes it's easier. Absolutely. Now, Monique, why is Rosina one of your dream roles? Ah, it's just, I mean, I love Rossini and being a coloratura soprano, it was one of my dreams to do all the coloratura that Rossini does, of course. And also, I mean, even though it's not properly only a coloratura soprano role, because of course it's done by mezzo soprano usually, but I just wanted to try this role and the depth of the character, which in this case is kind of like, you know, she's kind of like a ballerina, but not— she's kind of like mischievous and quite, you know, I would say like feisty. Yes. Yes. So, yeah, you have like different depths of the character. And I thought that during the rehearsal process this came out even more. So it was really like a work in progress from day 1 to day 10. Many things changed and they got richer and richer. And I was having like lots of fun developing this also. Yeah. Yeah. So not only from the singing point of view, And technically, of course, Rossini is quite difficult, but also from the acting point of view. So yeah, totally. There is— I mean, Rossini is one of my favorite characters. I love the aria when she says, "Ma se mi punge." Yes, exactly. So the aria says, when they— if they touch me on my weak point, if you like, I will become very, very dangerous. Yes, that's right. It's lovely because she says, "I'm very well behaved." Absolutely. "I do. I'm an extremely good girl, except." And so that's it. That is one of them, you know, the characters that are so up to date, if you like, you know, showing the woman that is— that knows what she wants and knows absolutely, and that she doesn't let the man to put the feet, you know, on her head, right? Oh yeah. So I think it's one of the best, and at the same time it's so funny. It is, it is funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's, um, what about the fact of singing this in Italian. I mean, you, Monique, are actually Italian, right? Yes, I'm half Italian, half Thai, but I was born in Italy. I grew up there, and I went to the Conservatorio Benedetto Marcello of Venice. Oh, wow. So Italian is my first language, really. So, but you know, there is, as an Italian myself, I can appreciate so much from the text. Yeah, it's so clever and so modern still. And nowadays we were talking, there are some things that are being said in the opera that are things that my dad says every day to my daughter, for example. So for you, Jenny, being an English speaker, do you think the audience miss out a little bit by the fact that it's sung in Italian? This is such a big subject. Okay, so I have a kind of passion for getting people to allow themselves to hear a foreign language and not feel threatened by it. You know, I think When you see small children, they don't say, "Oh, this person's speaking in a foreign language to me. How strange." They just react. And in my kind of dream ideal world, all us grown-ups would retain that immediacy. And when a composer sets a language, he or she hears the text and the music together, and it becomes a really close fit. And the minute— of course you can change the words. Everyone, loads of people do. In Germany, you always hear operas in— well, you used to always hear German. Oh, really? Yes, everything used to be in German. Everything. Oh yeah, I knew about the English National Opera that is doing this fantastic job. All over Germany, it used to be normal that you only heard German. It's not so normal now, but it was. So I totally get that people like to hear things in their own language, but I have a kind of passion for getting people to just accept and receive the language. And I think the challenge is, of course, we have surtitles, so that helps, but the challenge also is for the actors to become more physical so they don't just say, "Oh, I think you're really pretty." They say, "I think you're really pretty." You know? And if you don't happen to know those words precisely, you get the idea. Absolutely. Well, the first The aria we're gonna listen today is actually the duet, right, of Count Dalmaviva with Rosina, is "Se il mio nome saper voi bramate" from The Barber of Seville. Welcome to Women's Radio Station. I'm Sarah Louise Ryan, and welcome to Love Lessons Live on Women's Radio Station. Hello. And welcome to Future Classic Women Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte, on Women's Radio Station. Hello and welcome to Julie May Is Listening. Hi, this is Anna Kennedy, and we're at Women's Radio Station supporting women's well-being, and we're talking all things autism. Women, the possibilities are endless. That's what makes us different. Hi, I'm Lauren Mishkon. I'm a birth doula and mum of three, and I'm passionate about supporting women to have empowering and positive birth experiences. Please join me for my brand new show, From Tummy to Mummy, here on Women's Radio Station. Every week I'll be here with an expert guest talking about women's reproductive health. Everything fertility, pregnancy, birth, and baby related, right through to the menopause and beyond. Please join us for an informative and fun hour. Hello, my name is Ingrid Marsh on Women's Radio Station, and coming soon is the Radical Wellbeing Show. To help support women's wellbeing, each show I share the airwaves with ordinary women like me and you doing extraordinary things. Women who have overcome huge obstacles in their lives who are now here with me to empower you. On the Radical Wellbeing Show, you'll be inspired to kick away the roadblocks and live your life to the fullest. If you're ready to get radical about your wellbeing, then this is the show for you. Hi, I'm Hazel Butterfield, a blogger, book lover, and mental health advocate, and you can listen to my show Get Booked here at Women's Radio Station daily at 5 AM and 5 PM. Throughout my shows, we'll talk about the books I've read, new releases, chat to authors, publishers, and book enthusiasts, all with the theme and aim of supporting women's emotional well-being. If you have a book to tell us about, get in touch at presenters@womensradiostation.com. Join me on my show and share my love of books and writing. Hi, I'm Valentina Barbacci, and I'm the executive director of Media Matters for Women. We're a registered charity operating in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and we produce and share podcasts via Bluetooth on mobile phones, focusing specifically on women and girls excluded from information due to extreme poverty. We empower those living in rural areas with media that transforms how they access, own, and share information. To find out more and be part of this movement, come check out our website at MediaMattersForWomen.org. You're listening to Women's Radio Station, supporting women's well-being. Women's Radio Station's creating a global network for the empowerment of women, and we want you to be involved. Join us on Instagram and Twitter @WomensRadioStation, that's Women's Radio STN, or Facebook Women's Radio Station to keep up to date with all our exciting programs. Welcome back to Future Classic Women Awards on Women's Radio Station, the program where we search for the most amazing new female artists on the classical panorama. Our guests today are soprano Monique Clonc Troisdruoc and director Jenny Miller from The Barefoot Opera. We were talking about this amazing production, but before, I'd love to ask you, how did you decide, Monique, to become an opera singer? I think the passion for music and especially for classical music was always there since my life. Like my mom used to say that I always could go only to sleep listening to Tchaikovsky. Oh, wow. So any other thing, I wouldn't fall asleep. So I think it was just there. But then, kind of like by chance, and strangely enough, coming from an Italian background, I didn't fall in love with opera when I was in Italy. It happened later when I was in Thailand, because I'm also half Thai. And so I just went for an audition for a choir, an amateur choir, and the guy who was there was like, oh, this is very nice voice, why don't you consider learning opera? And I was like into Madonna and Michael Jackson at the time, but then I was like, okay, I'll give it a try. I tried, and then from then on, just love at first sight, really. So you started opera in Thailand? In Thailand, yes. That's quite unique. And you, Jenny, how did you decide to be involved with opera and become a director? Well, the directing happened by accident in a way, because I was an opera singer. That was my first career, and I was starting to run courses for singers. And I had a— I wanted in particular to get singers to understand themselves as acting singers. And I had a wonderful director who was going to come and work with the singers on this course. And she got stuck in Ireland and couldn't come. And I was phoning everyone I could think of. And then finally I said, okay, everyone, I'm going to do this because I can't get anyone to come. And it sort of started from there because I started actually finding more opportunities to direct and it grew from that. Wonderful. So, for how long have you— did you found the— Yes. So, Barefoot Opera eventually— I mean, I did various directing things, but I especially carried on with the running of workshops and the Barefoot Opera came from those workshops. Because I was starting to evolve a kind of approach to how a singer could be an instrumentalist, but a good mover, but also, you know, a singer is 3 things. Yeah. A mover, an interpreter of text. Absolutely. And a singer, an instrumentalist. So it was how did those things all fit together and what was at the basis, at the heart of that? And it was exploring that basic, what I call responsive breath. That is what gave birth to Barefoot Opera because I wanted some forum for this really basic approach to relating to others. So I'd like to ask you then, do you sing sometimes? What, in the company? In general, yeah. In general. I tend to avoid singing in the company because I— or at least I certainly avoid directing and singing at the same time. Yeah. They're both very busy jobs. But, and I do still sing them, you know, for other people to sing with me. So, my question is then, is directing changing your way of singing? Ah, it's sort of, no. I would say that I feel like directing, what it is to direct or to sing it's all part of the same material, just from a slightly different angle. Okay. Yeah. All right. And why The Barber of Sevilla? Well, I love the opera. I've always loved it. I'm passionate about commedia. Yeah, I'm really completely fascinated in comedy. Yeah, but the Italian classical. Commedia, I'm really passionate about it. And I feel like The Barber of Seville and indeed Marriage of Figaro, you know, the Nozze di Figaro and so on, I feel like they're all— you can see this relationship to the characters in Commedia. And I'm kind of constantly, continually interested by that. So the next piece we're going to listen to is actually Largo al Factotum. That is one of the most famous aria in the world ever. How hard it is for the— to choose the right Figaro, actually? Ah, well, um, he was phenomenal, I have to say. I really liked him. Oscar Castellino is, um, he has a wonderful Portuguese name, but he's actually Indian, Goan Indian, and he, uh, has worked with us a couple of years before, and partly we chose this because we had him in mind. All right. Yeah, wonderful. And so Largo il Factotum, before we start listening to it, for the audience that doesn't understand Italian and at this very moment that doesn't have the text translator, shall we talk about what does the aria mean? So basically he's saying that he is the— when does the aria come? So It's kind of like his introduction of his character. So he's basically showing off and saying to everybody in Sevilla— his business card, you can say calling card. Yes, calling card. Yeah. And he's saying that he's the most famous person in Sevilla. Nobody can do anything without him because he's, you know, he does everything. So he solves the problems. You know, it's not just the barber, it's actually the factotum. So the factotum is the one that does everything. Everything. Yes. So let's listen then to Largo al factotum from Rossini, first act, The Barber of Siviglia. And this was Largo Alfattotum with Oscar Castellino as Figaro in The Marriage— oh my gosh— The Barber of Sevilla by Rossini. We will be back after a short break. Welcome to Women's Radio Station. I'm Sarah Louise Ryan, and welcome to Love Lessons Live on Women's Radio Station. Hello. And welcome to Future Classic Women Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte, on Women's Radio Station. Hello and welcome to Julie May Is Listening. Hi, this is Anna Kennedy, and we're at Women's Radio Station supporting women's well-being, and we're talking all things autism. Women, the possibilities are endless. That's what makes us different. Hi, I'm Lauren Mishkon. I'm a birth doula and mum of three, and I'm passionate about supporting women to have empowering and positive birth experiences. Please join me for my brand new show, From Tummy to Mummy, here on Women's Radio Station. Every week I'll be here with an expert guest talking about women's reproductive health, everything fertility, pregnancy, birth, and baby related, right through to the menopause and beyond. Please join us for an informative and fun hour. Hello, my name is Ingrid Marsh on Women's Radio Station, and coming soon is the Radical Wellbeing Show. To help support women's wellbeing, each show I share the airwaves with ordinary women like me and you doing extraordinary things. Women who've overcome huge obstacles in their lives who are now here with me to empower you. On the Radical Wellbeing Show, you'll be inspired to kick away the roadblocks and live your life to the fullest. If you're ready to get radical about your wellbeing, then this is the show for you. Hi, I'm Hazel Butterfield, a blogger, book lover, and mental health advocate, and you can listen to my show Get Booked here at Women's Radio Station daily at 5 AM and 5 PM. Throughout my shows, we'll talk about the books I've read, new releases, chat to authors, publishers, and book enthusiasts, all with a theme and aim of supporting women's emotional well-being. If you have a book to tell us about, get in touch at presenters@womensradiostation.com. Join me on my show and share my love of books and writing. Hi, I'm Valentina Barbacci, and I'm the executive director of Media Matters for Women. We're a registered charity operating in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and we produce and share podcasts via Bluetooth on mobile phones, focusing specifically on women and girls excluded from information due to extreme poverty. We empower those living in rural areas with media that transforms how they access, own, and share information. To find out more and be part of this movement, come check out our website at mediamattersforwomen.org. You're listening to Women's Radio Station supporting women's well-being. Women's Radio Station's creating a global network for the empowerment of women, and we want you to be involved. Join us on Instagram and Twitter @WomensRadioStation, that's Women's Radio Station, or Facebook Women's Radio Station to keep up to date with all our exciting programs. Welcome back to Future Classical Women Awards on Women's Radio Station. Today we are talking to soprano Monique Clontradroch and director Jenny Miller from the Barefoot Opera. So we're talking about this amazing opera, how it is to set it up. Jenny, how is it to work with Well, actually, everybody was very young apart from— Well, apart from Andrew. Andrew Don Basilio, right? I mean, Andrew, he was amazing. He was playing in the band, if you like, in the orchestra that was accompanying the opera, and then switching and going performing and then going back to the— to playing. And I did ask him, how can you do that? And he says, well, You know, it would be boring to be backstage waiting. So I was happy to perform, to play. I mean, but that's quite an incredible, you know, combination. Absolutely. So how is it to work with such young artists? Monique, Dora, the count figure as well. I mean, they're all so young. Well, it's— yes, they're all from very different backgrounds, very different experiences. And that's the really interesting thing, is that people, they're not all coming from one little group or area of experience. They're coming with very different experiences. I mean, Andrew's an interesting case because he spent, I don't know, 20 years or more as a very fine, sought-after classical clarinetist, and he had a secret passion for singing. Oh, wow. And eventually, you know, he was working with me and we started this combining singing with playing, which I loved because I'm always trying to find ways to break down the barriers between instrumentalists and singers. Absolutely. That's very entrenched in the industry. I really want to see it become eased up. It's a bit of a battle, really. Yeah, absolutely. Well, normally the idea is that if you want to make it, you have to focus 100% just on that. You can't do two things, otherwise it means you're not— well, that's what I've been told. And I never cared. I always went on, you know, doing whatever I was doing. Yes. Well, our conte, our very talented young Jack Roberts, to my joy, and this I didn't know about, said, oh, I can play a bit of guitar, he said. And he picked up his guitar and played it extremely well and, you know, with great musicality. And hey presto, he played the guitar for his beautiful First of all, your listeners will know that. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. His first little aria. Absolutely. Yeah. So it's— I don't think one should be rigid about the idea. I'm not suggesting that you're likely to find someone who can sing like, I don't know, Pavarotti and then pick up a violin and play like, you know, whoever. Pavarotti was doing something else. He loved horse horse riding. So it was actually— yeah, and he was very good. Yeah, how interesting. Yeah, you wouldn't say, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, you wouldn't expect. No, absolutely. So there you are, people do do more than one thing in their lives. Absolutely. Now, um, I'll ask you then, Monique, which one was the most exciting moment in your career? Oh, okay. Well, um, I've been very honored to sing for the royal family in Thailand. Oh, wow. So two very nice moments were, of course, when the latest King Rama IX died. There was like a big, such a big occasion in Thailand. I mean, everybody was like really sad because it was like the death of your grandfather. And that's like the grandfather of the nation. He was really loved. And I think he's done lots of things for Thailand. So I was here in London and I was called to go there and perform with the orchestra precisely for this historical concert, performing all the compositions by him because he was a composer and he had a jazz band and he was a saxophonist. So he has done lots of— He did more than one thing. Exactly. You see, and he was a king. He was a king. Full time. We need to tell Prince Andrew to step up, isn't it? All right. So what was the most exciting moment for your career? As a director or as— Up to you. Or both. I'll choose as a director. As a director, I was offered the opportunity in a small, good opera house, Longborough Festival Opera, to do a marriage— Nozze di Figaro. And that is one that was offered to you before. Yeah, sorry about that. And I was offered the chance to do it really my way as an ensemble piece with a lot of, for example, I had a huge crowd of servants who were in the show the whole time. Oh, wow. Spying on people and creating corridors, and it was very physical theater. And they, at one point, they made a whole— they turned themselves into an armchair and the Count sat in them and so on. You know, and that was, I think that was a highlight for me. Oh, wow. To be given that opportunity to really do what I wanted to do. And what would you say was the most challenging moment in your career as a director? Well, actually, I've just directed Anna Bolena for that same company, and I loved doing it, and I had a wonderful cast, but I discovered that it was just so— it's a brilliant opera with a brilliant libretto and beautiful beautifully structured, but it's monolithic. There's no subplot, there's no, you know, funny side characters. I know, that's not funny for sure. And I found that very intense, and you know, it's like going through a dark, dark tunnel sometimes. It was so, yeah, intense. And for you, Monique? The most challenging moment? Probably when I had to sing Queen of the Night in South Tyrol for a production last year, and we had to— it was videoed for doing a movie, like a kind of like a documentary movie. And I had sung Queen of the Night before, but never open air on the mountains at 3 AM, dressed like almost like with bikini. So that was very challenging. Oh my gosh, all right, well, let's listen now, you, Monique, singing as Rosina, "Una voce poco fa." Welcome to Women's Radio Station. I'm Sarah Louise Ryan and welcome to Love Lessons Live on Women's Radio Station. Hello and welcome to Future Classic Women Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte, on Women's Radio Station. Hello and welcome to Julie May Is Listening. Hi, this This is Anna Kennedy and we're at Women's Radio Station supporting women's well-being and we're talking all things autism. Women, the possibilities are endless. That's what makes us different. Hi, I'm Lauren Mishkon. I'm a birth doula and mum of 3 and I'm passionate about supporting women to have empowering and positive birth experiences. Please join me for my brand new show From Tummy to Mummy here on Women's Radio Station. Every week I'll be here with an expert guest talking about women's reproductive health, everything fertility, pregnancy, birth, and baby related, right through to the menopause and beyond. Please join us for an informative and fun hour. Hello, my name is Ingrid Marsh on Women's Radio Station, and coming soon is the Radical Wellbeing Show. To help support women's wellbeing, each show I share the airwaves with ordinary women like me and you doing extraordinary things. Women who have overcome huge obstacles in their lives who are now here with me to empower you. On the Radical Wellbeing Show, you'll be inspired to kick away the roadblocks and live your life to the fullest. If you're ready to get radical about your wellbeing, then this is the show for you. Hi, I'm Hazel Butterfield, a blogger, book lover, and mental health advocate, and you can listen to my show Get Booked here at Women's Radio Station. Daily at 5 AM and 5 PM. Throughout my shows, we'll talk about the books I've read, new releases, chat to authors, publishers, and book enthusiasts, all with the theme and aim of supporting women's emotional well-being. If you have a book to tell us about, get in touch at presenters@womensradiostation.com. Join me on my show and share my love of books and writing. Hi, I'm Valentina Barbacci, and I'm the executive director of Media Matters for Women. We're a registered charity operating in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and we produce and share podcasts via Bluetooth on mobile phones, focusing specifically on women and girls excluded from information due to extreme poverty. We empower those living in rural areas with media that transforms how they access, own, and share information. To find out more and be part of this movement, come check out our website at MediaMattersForWomen.org. You're listening to Women's Radio Station, supporting women's well-being. Women's Radio Station's creating a global network for the empowerment of women, and we want you to be involved. Join us on Instagram and Twitter @WomensRadioStation, that's Women's Radio S-T-N, or Facebook Women's Radio Station to keep up to date with all our exciting programs. Welcome back to Future Classic Women Awards on Women's Radio Station. Our guests today are soprano Monique Clonc Troisdruich and director Jenny Miller from the Barefoot Opera. Now, this is the last part of our interview that went too fast, I'm very sorry to say, so I think you have to come back. And it's time for the odd question. So Monique, we start with you. Do you have any strange hobby to free your mind or relax? Well, I am a believer, so I'm a believer in Jesus and that helps me a lot. So I pray before going on stage. And yeah, I mean, he's very, very personal and very real. So it's not a religion. So yeah. Yeah. So I think he helps me all the time. Well, so a question: How was it to sing in a church? Does that make you feel more near to him? Not really, because I mean, I think he's like always like inside me. So whether I'm in a church or not, it doesn't really matter. Okay. Yeah. But I have to say, in the church, the acoustic, it was making your voice and everybody else so amazing. It was really special. It was elevated, if you like. And you, Jenny? What a special thing I do or think of? I'm not a I don't do anything particularly. Okay, like you don't have a favorite pair of earrings, for example, that you wear for the first night? I'm just admiring your earring, that's why. I have many favorite earrings. There we go. So, Jenny, do you have any embarrassing moments or funny moments? I'm going to tell you a funny moment from when I was a young singer. Yeah, I was working with an experimental very experimental kind of opera group in Europe, and one of— we were a very international group, and we were in Germany somewhere. Anyway, the German singer in our cast was someone who was very afraid of her. She was a very beautiful singer, but she was very afraid to move much, and so the director decided for this particular show to put her in a beautiful outfit and have her stand very still for like 20 minutes, and then she had to do some Action. So she stood there for about 15 minutes and then she suddenly vomited all over the stage. What? And we had to carry on acting and we had to kind of carefully move around. Oh my God. When we came off we said, "Angela, why did you stay on stage?" She said, "I didn't know what to do." This is funny. I can't possibly beat that story. Typically, the audience thought it was part of the show. No way! Like it was a fake vomit? Oh my God. And you, so Monique, do you have anything funny? Not like that. I'm sorry. As I was saying, I was doing this opera, this Thai opera in Australia, and there were only two characters. I was the mother and then my colleague was the son. And he actually killed me. He killed the mother. And then what he does is like, He looks at the sky and then all this rice falls from the sky on me and I'm like down on the floor, kind of like resting on my side, and all the rice is not supposed to come on my face and inside my ears. Of course, of course. So in all the rehearsals we practiced, you know, like he would put like a shirt over my face, but that day he forgot. So I was there like kind of like dying because all the rice was going inside my ears. And so he was like, oh, what should I do? So he started moving moving me, like really shaking me strongly. And then in the end, he just went like with his body, like over my face to cover me. Oh, that's funny too. Absolutely. All right. So what's your next project? Well, I've got two really different projects. One is that Lucy Mulgan is the double bassist in our Barefoot Band, and she is a composer. And she has written a children's opera. And so we're going to be launching that in primary schools down in the southeast. It's called Red. So that's one little— it's a very sort of a little micro project. It's a lovely project for school children because they will help create some of the music themselves. But then the other project's a massive, enormous project that has no beginning and no end, and it haunts my dreams, and it's called Bloom Britannia, and it's a new commission. Barefoot Opera's commissioned Orlando Goff and Stephen Place to compose and write a new sort of people's opera involving loads of the community. Wow. Yeah. So, yeah, got a lot on really. Well, actually, you have more, more representation of the Barber of Sevilla, right? Oh, this is true. How can I forget that important fact? Yeah, that is. Would you like to say maybe people can— Yeah, that's, uh, next Saturday, uh, in Hastings, in St. Mary in the Castle. Oh, fantastic. If there is still tickets, I recommend everybody to go. You can go on the website and get tickets very easily. October 26th. Yes, fantastic. All right, now we finish with the finale. From the first act, Freda e Nobile, with a tutti. So we're gonna have everybody singing at the same time, so I'm gonna mention everybody. So the Conte d'Almaviva, that is Jack Roberts, and John Openshaw, that's gonna be Don Bartolo, Andrew Sparling, Don Basilio, Oscar Casellino as Figaro, and Dora Sorrentino, Berta, and finally Monique Clontra Druk, Esrosin, under the direction of Jenny Miller. Best team! And this was the first act, Freda ed immobile, from The Barber of Seville of Rossini with the barefoot Opera Company. If you have any questions that you would like to ask to our guests or nominations for our Future Classic Women Awards, please email presenters@womensradiostation.com or tweet us @WomensRadioSTN. A big thanks to our guests Monique and Jenny for the great chat and the beautiful music played today. Thank you for having us here. It was so much fun. You have to come back, I'm telling to the audience already. 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