How did this collaboration start? I have known Tassos for more years than I care to remember. We played in bands together back in the dark ages, co-wrote an album of children's songs together, collaborated on various television projects. So Tassos approaching me to work together on the opera I think for him was kind of a Blues Brothers moment - "we're putting the band back together!" We work well together and understand what the other wants. My long association with Greece

When war broke out women found ways to contribute to the war efforts of their countries, albeit within the limitations set on them by society: they raised funds, wrote letters, sent care parcels, knitted and waited for their men to return. But in almost all countries there was at least one way in which women could leave home and go to war: nursing. For those women who wanted to take an active role in their country’s war effort, nursing was really their only option. Nursing in