Don't talk about the witching hour to opera singer Nigel Robson - for it takes him a full THREE hours to prepare for his latest role.

The top tenor is playing the wicked witch in the Welsh National Opera's new production of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, which comes to the Oxford Apollo tomorrow night.

It's a role usually reserved for a female singer - so a large part of Nigel's preparation is concerned with creating the illusion that he's a woman.

By the time he has added the last piece of padding and fitted the wig into place, even his best friends don't know him.

"The first thing everyone asks me is if it is comfortable," he said.

"Actually it is, but then it was made especially for me by making a mask of my face. "It's fitted in parts. First is the chin, and when that is fixed it's a matter of building up the bits under the eyes.

"It's made of prosthetic rubber - the stuff they use to give someone an artificial ear.

"I don't start getting into character and really thinking about the transformation until right at the end when they have fixed my enormous buttocks and my boobs.

"The weirdest moment of all is when I'm standing there with all the padding on, my face all made up - but no wig. I am bald, so until the wig is fitted I stand midway between being the witch and being myself."

The thing Nigel finds particularly fascinating about this role is the strange relationship the witch has with the children, particularly Gretel.

There are aspects of the work which are really dark. The witch's kitchen treads a fine line between looking like something out of the House of Horrors and Delia Smith's kitchen," he said.

When the performance is over, it takes at least 40 minutes to remove his disguise.

Story date: Wednesday 03 March

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