Oh yes he did!

In the interview, the Canadian baritone explained how he got into the part by reading and reading through until the character inhabited him. Then in rehearsals he would hone his expressions, with eyes rolling around their sockets like he was a demented wicked uncle in a Christmas pantomime performance.

All it needed was a multitude of kids in the audience hissing and shouting out ”He’s behind you!”... but at the ROH of course, just silence.

Despite the heroine’s tragic finale of going over the top of the battlements, it was Gerald Finley as Scarpia who really went over the top.