“I was working in a restaurant once and … [one] night I sang an aria from Carmen, and a French workmate said, ‘Oh, you have such a beautiful voice and your French is good.’ Then she asked, ‘But what are you going to do?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ And she said, ‘Well, you can’t sing Don José because you’re black’.’ I just kind of froze and thought, holy cow.”