MEZZO soprano Sara Fulgoni, who lives on the Herefordshire borders, is currently singing the Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

Music arrived in her life by chance, when she discovered a piano in the basement of the restaurant her father co-owned.

“I expressed a wish to learn to play it and started lessons at about 10 or 11 years,” she said. But it was not until she went to university that she found her voice.

“I went to Hull to do a music degree and they told me that I had a voice and it should be trained.”

Despite all the encouragement and support, Sara still believed that her future lay in teaching, but then it was suggested that she think about going to the conservatoire.

“I had no idea what was entailed, but I applied to the Royal Northern College of Music, auditioned and got in.”

Friends from university shared her feelings: “They would ask what I did all day long,” she says. “I remember being flabbergasted that there was no written work.”

“I have always juxtaposed all sorts of repertoire. For me that’s been good because it’s stretched me,” she says.

“When you are working, you want to have a blend of new roles and roles you have done before.”

One of those that Sara has now played many times is Carmen, with the Daily Telegraph referring to her as ‘the Carmen of the decade’.

Preparing for the first night of Dido & Aeneas at one of world’s most prestigious opera houses, Sara reflects on her successful career: “I would never have dared to think I could make a living doing something like singing or acting, something I enjoyed. I do pinch myself a bit.”