Simon Keenlyside has appeared in three Grange Park Opera seasons . . . and there are plans for a fourth appearance imminently.

Leaving music aside, we asked this man of many talents and diverse interests a few questions.

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A most beautiful train journey?

The hour along the estuary — Swansea — past Llanelli, Ferryside and ending up in Carmarthen……is probably my favourite…if only because it leads me home. And I dream of my little heaven in west Wales…most days of my life.

I loved the beautiful steam-train from Glasgow to Fort William ending at the gateway to the Western Isles. As beautiful a place as anywhere on this earth.

 In which age would you have liked to live?

This would be that age I would so love to live: 35,000 years ago. You can keep the whole modern era, the last 5,000 years. For me, the whole lot pales when compared with the period before the last neanderthals disappear.

Can you imagine the interaction between migrating groups of modern humans? Neanderthal communities: intelligent, social, different animals. Wonderful neanderthals who ruled the northern hemisphere for 200,000 years.

They buried their dead…they used red ochre and ritual….But what else they could or couldn’t do, isn’t yet clear.

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