Hitting the high notes – thanks to Elton John

RISING opera star Allan Clayton's career has received a major boost from one of the pop world's most flamboyant performers.

In 2004, he was one of the first recipients of a lucrative scholarship award from what was, at the time, an anonymous donor.

"I was so pleased when they offered me one of these scholarships," says Allan. "That was in November and I had no idea who was behind it. Then, in the February, they told me that my sponsor would like to meet me – and that it was Elton John.

"I couldn't believe it. He was very friendly and has been supportive ever since. He always wants to know what the people who have had his scholarships are up to. It's a wonderful thing he's done. I think he has donated something like £1m. The arts suffer in a recession as it is seen as not a necessity so we need things like this."

In Allan's case the investment is certainly paying off. At 28 he has been spotted as a "rising star" of the opera world and this week can be seen singing the role of Belmonte in Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio.

Film-goers who have seen Amadeus may recall that this was the opera commissioned by Emperor Joseph II but dismissed by him as having "too many notes".

"There are certainly too many high notes for me," laughs Allan. "It's singspiel (opera with passages of dialogue) and, in this version of it, the dialogue between the numbers flows quickly between the scenes."

So why is it performed far less frequently than Mozart works such as The Marriage of Figaro?

"The chorus only have two small scenes, so it's not that attractive for big opera companies," says Allan. "Two actors are needed in our production and the singers are expected to act. So it's quite hard to cast and the role of Konstanze is a fiendish soprano role. But the music in it is exquisite and has endured. That is why it's still being done now. It was a love poem to Mozart's Constanze (who became his wife) and so is full of ravishing music and was so heartfelt for him.

"Our version's a more generous look at the East than Mozart and his peers were able to do. The idea of ours is that westerners turn up in this strange middle-eastern/north-African land and we are the idiots. I arrive like an ethnic goatherd fully expecting to be integrated into society and am greeted by a Turkish guard in a shirt and tie."

It's a fitting theme for Allan who sings for a charity called The Choir of London, which promotes relations between the East and West Banks. He sang in The Magic Flute, the first opera ever to be performed in Ramallah in Palestine.

"It was the first time an opera had toured the West Bank at all. Ramallah was an extraordinary experience, having armed guards checking the props and costumes and not being sure what we were doing."

Allan was born in Solihull and moved around with his RAF father, living for some years in Germany. At school he played rugby, cricket and football for the school and at university was a rugby prop in the college league.

"It came to a time when I had to choose one or the other," he says.

But he did manage to get out on to the pitch at the 2005 FA Cup Final with Hayley Westenra and Katherine Jenkins

"Thierry Henry was injured and was standing there in the rain and he said, 'You are going out there to sing. No way – that's crazy. I could never do that'.

"But I couldn't score 100 Premier League goals, so there we go."

The Abduction from the Seraglio is on tomorrow and Friday at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham. On Wednesday and Saturday, Verdi's Don Carlos and on Thursday it's Shostakovich's Paradise Moscow. Tickets: £14.50-£54. Box office: 0115 989 5555.