[Plumbus]

I have not told you that my real passion in life was singing but not, as you might expect, popular music but music of a more classical nature. I often performed in England in oratorio as a top soprano or in a chorus. I also liked light opera such as that written by the German composers during the twenties and thirties.

One day I was posing for marcel and during a break I was singing and my voice was pretty strong at that time and as I was in the deserted garden I could let rip and really enjoy myself. On hearing this Marcel said that he had a friend who was a professor at an arts school in Bordeaux and he felt sure that he would be interested in my singing. He would send a portfolio of me to the professor and try to get me a voice test.

I did not think too much more about it but felt quite flattered that he thought me worth a test. One thing that I did not know was that the portfolio contained quite a few nude pictures, which he had thought might swing my case for a hearing and in the event it did. When I went he asked me to sing a piece from an opera by Richard Strauss which was vaguely familiar but it was until after I had sung it that ha asked what I thought about singing it on stage and explained that it was from Salome. I though it bit challenging but he seemed confident that I could manage it.

It was not until we had been in rehearsal for some time that the produced of the show mentioned that he wanted his Salome to do her dance for Heron to the intimate conclusion which is to remove all seven veils and finish up naked on the stage and this was me. This frightened me to death because I found the singing role challenging enough but to appear on a stage in an opera nude was particularly scary.

I was to be dressed in chiffon scarves that were tucked into the waist of another one tied around me. The seventh one was to be tied over my breasts. Then the men of the court were to, one by one, pull them off my body whilst I did an erotic dance ending up throwing myself at Herod's feet. Once this was done the lights would dim and my nudity would be history, except that I was booked for four performances.

Cameras were not generally allowed at performances but I was to do some shots whilst in rehearsal and here are some of them