Independent classical podcast: Sophie Bevan

The "one little maid in attendance come" or, to be more precise, the delectable Yum-Yum, arrived hot-foot from rehearsals for the 25th Anniversary revival of Jonathan Miller's staging of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado in the petite blond personage of Sophie Bevan.

Bevan is one of the UK's fastest rising stars of the opera world and English National Opera made a good call when they invited her to be part of their Young Singers Programme. She's already wowed us in Handel's Radamisto and the controversial Deborah Warner staging of The Messiah and there will be much more where they came from. She came from an extraordinarily musical family of eight siblings and her father's even more prolific family of fourteen siblings sets the Bevans up there with the Von Trapps.

In this exclusive ENO OperaCast, Sophie talks to Edward Seckerson about the joy of singing, the difficult choices, and the temptations. She resisted early attempts to turn her into another Charlotte Church and recently kept a cool head when an offer she couldn't refuse but did required her to bare all.

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