“My first real experience of professional opera was at Glyndebourne, and I fondly imagined that’s how it was everywhere. The thing that I am most grateful about is that I have never forgotten what it felt like, and wherever I went after that I tried very hard to maintain that kind of feel – about wanting good colleagues around me, working with a good team, no weak links, people who were really interested and really wanted to work…that sense of looking at the opera world through new eyes, and being immediately inspired by that kind of standard in every way was the standard by which I measured all my opera for the rest of my life.”