Voice of calm

In March 2020, I caught Covid-19. Fever, loss of taste and smell, profound fatigue, dry cough: the works. My life as a classical music journalist went on hold. Walking up stairs left me out of breath. Though unpleasant, I thought the illness manageable. Then, after a few weeks, it got worse. All I could do was lie utterly still in a dark, silent room, concentrating on breathing. Inhale, exhale. The paramedics and doctors eventually said I was over the worst: just rest, drink water, take paracetamol. Still, I was left with ongoing, often strange symptoms. It sometimes felt as if my body had forgotten how to breathe. That was terrifying.

Cue English National Opera (ENO). This is a story about artists and medics who pooled their skills in a new way to help Covid survivors recover. It started with the UK’s first national lockdown, when ENO closed the doors of its home, the London Coliseum. In the weeks that followed, the company’s costume designers swapped Puccini for PPE, and made scrubs