Opera is viewed as something of an endurance sport in the musical world. Hours spent on stage, in costume, doing a very physical job far away from home comforts can take its toll on the body if it’s not adequately fuelled.

As Ruth Alexander discovers in this programme, diet is of paramount importance to a professional singer.

Sopranos Rachel Nicholls and Lucy Schaufer, and Fred Plotkin - opera and food writer and friend of Luciano Pavarotti – share the secrets of the relationship between singing and sustenance, and what foods can help achieve a star performance.

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The piece of music at the start and end of this programme is If Music be the Food of Love, by Henry Purcell. Performed by Rachel Nicholls.

(Picture: Pavarotti eating from a spoon. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)

Producer: Elisabeth Mahy