There’s a lot going on with your production of Eight Songs for a Mad King – how would you describe it to the uninitiated? A slowly eviscerating work that stretches the human voice to its limits.

The staging sounds very different – any unique challenges from that? We are pushing the form to the limits and are trusting the audience to go with it.

What are you hoping your production will bring to the script? You say you want to break down barriers between performers and audience – how? The audience is so close to the performer that they literally feel him passing through them. He is so close to the audience that their reactions in turn affect his every nuance. It happens at a molecular level perhaps?

You have a strong reputation for directing award-winning opera, what has been your favourite show to direct so far? I look forward. Time enough to reflect when I’m spent. Semele is coming up – a sacred work and a sex romp playing in a cathedral with some of the most sublime music ever written.

What piqued your interest in a career in opera? The first opera I directed was the first I listened to. After that I quickly realised that the form is endlessly fascinating and therefore likely to support a career life lived.

What do you think you would be doing otherwise? I would love for someone to sponsor me to write for a year and then I would write and garden.

What’s the most common misconception about opera? That it is for someone else.

Who’s your personal hero? Diderot.

Who would you love to collaborate with? I’m already reaching out to lots of people (secret). I’m keen to explore the connection between opera and contemporary Māori cultural practice.

What inspired you to write your book The Singing and Acting Handbook? A realisation that acting training for singers couldn’t be the same as for actors in spoken theatre but that few training programmes at the time recognised this.

Is there a particular author that has inspired you in your life or career? Herman Hesse.