The opera is based on the Book of Tobit from the Old Testament, and deals with the adventures of a happy-go-lucky lad who is helped on a physical and spiritual journey he must undergo by a mysterious stranger, who turns out to be the angel Raphael. The first scene I witness is between the lad and the stranger. It’s classy, and funny at the same time. The music has elements of klezmer music to it. They dance together, in different styles.
“Why do you dance so strangely?” sings Tobias.
“This is how they dance in my country,” sings the angel.
“You did very well to leave your country”. So far, so amusing. Then the angel character starts singing. A counter-tenor, he sings… well he sings like an angel. It’s an incredible sound. And as the rehearsal goes on, the more depth I realise there is to the piece.

“This is a true piece of community opera,” says Mukerjee, an hour and a half later, after I’ve watched the cast perfect elements of the powerful final scene. “It’s a story of love, redemption and self-discovery with a universal moral. It’s not an elite piece of opera; some of the vernacular is very colloquial; a lot of it is funny. But it is a very complex piece of music, not an easy piece to perform. Unlike most modern operas, it is not atonal. As singers we need agility and technique. We need huge bursts of energy to sustain our voices at extreme ranges.” We’ve time for a quick photo opportunity outside the church, and he’s back off to rehearsal. “Are you coming on Friday?” he asks. “I’ve already seen most of it,” I joke. “Not with the sort of electricity there’ll be on the night, you haven’t”.