Concert performances dispense with action, costumes and stage sets. Without all that, how do you conjure up opera inside your head?
I’ve sung this part so often that it’s second nature for me now. I only have to start singing and my body is automatically swinging in parallel. It’s a joy every time to feel it happening! I feel the same emotions. I try to convey as much of Dido’s state of mind as I can in that short space of time.

Your biggest challenge?
Jet lag! No, joking aside, Berlioz was a genius. He creates exactly the right atmosphere at exactly the right time – and in the process he saves me most of the work. All I have to do is ride the wave.

Your nicest moment?
In the aria Dido looks back over her life, on the happy times, her time as queen of Carthage and how her power is slipping away. She has feelings of honour and gratitude, love for her country and countryfolk. At my age, in my late fifties, it’s easy to identify with that because I, too, look back with happiness.

Berlioz’s LES TROYENS is four hours long and is considered quite absurd in a way, quite full of itself. How do you get into character up there on the bare stage?
The only thing you can do is immerse yourself totally in the lyrics and music. I ask myself how I, Susan, would react in Dido’s position. In concert performances my aim is always to bring out every facet of the work – and the only way I can do that is if I surrender completely to the music and throw myself into the arias. With all the authenticity and honesty I can muster.

Unlike other composers, Berlioz learned music playing the guitar rather than the piano. What effect did that have on his works?
A lot of his music is very rhythmic, almost throbbing – almost in the baroque sense. For me, Berlioz is like Gluck on steroids. The two composers – the baroque composer Christoph Willibald Gluck and romantic Hector Berlioz – have this onward, unbrookable quality to their music, which really draws you into the stories they’re telling.

What do you prefer: opera all-inclusive or the music on its own?
I love all the visible, physical, theatrical aspects that opera brings with it, the drama, the sets, costumes, lighting. At the same time, I love hiving parts of the work off from the rest and presenting them in concertante form. It allows you to get really intimate with the audience. Nothing distracts from my voice, nothing distracts from the music. My heart is fully committed to and involved in the operatic experience – and I bring this feeling with me to the concert evenings.