Teenage blind opera singer has no barriers

A blind singer who started performing opera on Zoom has said he wants to show there are no barriers to success as he prepares for his first performance.
 

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Toben Durrant, 16, from Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, has always loved music and played instruments as a child.
 

He said his love of opera comes from the emotional effect it has on people, and he was inspired by singers like Andrea Bocelli, who is also blind.
 

His advice to anybody who has a disability is: 'You can do anything."
 

Toben has a rare genetic condition called Leber's congenital amaurosis.
 

He joined the Welsh National Youth Opera (WNYO) during the pandemic in September 2020.
 

He rehearsed on Zoom until his first performance - in front of the Queen at the opening of the Senedd in October.
 

Reading music through braille and learning orally, he is currently in rehearsals for The Black Spider, which opens at the end of May at the Wales Millennium Centre.
 

Toben has always been a musician, playing the violin and viola growing up before turning his hand to singing as part of his musical exams.
 

"I had my accompanist helping me and he went 'ah you can sing' and said I should start singing lessons.
 

"So I did and that's how I started."
 

He developed a love for opera after performing pieces for his exams and being moved by the influence he said it can have on people.
 

"I loved the sort of the theatrics and the way it's not really realistic.
 

"You're never going to have an opera that's like a down to earth kind of like what you would like in perhaps normal theatre.
 

"That's what I love about it, it's so weird and also just expressing yourself and it's lovely to do that."