Teresa on her greatest love

Teresa (61) is one of life’s battery-chargers. It’s impossible to spend time with her and not feel uplifted by her infectious enthusiasm and energy. She’s a real powerhouse. And she’s really, really passionate about opera

"I come from an Italian family, so opera is in my genes. My mother was a great follower, so was my granny. Good opera makes the hairs on the back of my neck stick up. It’s almost impossible to believe that some people can actually have a voice as beautiful and soaring as they do. It just touches my soul. I travel around the world in order to see operas, and if I’m away on business or holiday, I’ll always check what’s on there.

My favourite opera memory was when I went to see the entire Ring Cycle in a week. When the woman playing Brunnhilde came on stage, her voice was so loud and powerful that the singer playing Wotan fell backwards and she fell on top of him. But she never stopped singing, and nor did he, they kept going until they got up!

The giant started to slowly topple over

Then at another point in the performance, the giants - massive inflatables with a man or woman inside - appeared and one of them obviously had a hole in it, because all you could hear was the high pitched sound of the air escaping as the giant started to slowly topple over. Needless to say, they kept on singing!

The opera house that made the greatest impression on me was the Metropolitan in New York, where the chandeliers disappear into the ceiling before the show starts.

I run a social enterprise cinema in North London called The Lexi, and we take a live feed from the Met from time to time, and our screen and our sound system is so brilliant it’s like being in the auditorium itself."