It is the small details that make ordinary art sublime, and that is precisely how three live sheep arrived to the Opera House. They obviously don’t sing but they appear more than I do.

At the beginning, we had Rosemary, Thyme and Mint -the leading sheep, who at an early stage of rehearsals got sick and was replaced by Sheila -the understudy.

They had been doing really well until the fire alarm came off last week during a dress rehearsal. Not only they were confused, but many of us disagreed in whether the sheep had or not priority to evacuate the building. By the time we all managed to get out to Covent Garden the scene looked like the ‘Adoration of the Magi’.

It’s has been funny for some of us but not for Rosemary, Thyme and Sheila who since then haven’t been able to be onstage without shitting compulsively and blocking the scene changes.

For the Opening Night the chorus has been advised to sing very quietly, the orchestra to play subtly and the soprano encouraged to sing with her chest voice during this bit in order to avoid stressing the sheep.