Stephen Mead AKA "Grimoaldo" saw his first opera aged six when his mother took him to see "Lucia di Lammermoor" because she is Scottish and the opera has a Scottish subject and she could get reduced price tickets because the company was using our church hall as a rehearsal space. He fell in love with the form then and has been a devoted opera goer ever since, attending many hundreds of live performances at many European and American opera houses. He is a fanatical devotee of the operas of Handel and Verdi and also enjoys operetta and many lesser-known French operas. For years he worked in England as a lecturer in adult education on the history of opera and classical music and also gave per-performance talks for operas being performed in London.