He wrote the score for the film Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and is the musical force behind the Canadian ballet production of Alice In Wonderland, and tonight you lucky devils can spend an evening in Joby Talbot's company.

He'll speak at the Winspear's Hamon Hall in a conversation moderated by D Magazine's arbiter of all things arts, Peter Simek. It's free, you'll learn something and the opera promises "a surprise" to be revealed at the end. Beat-boxing tenors? Break dancing sopranos? Unlikely.

My guess: they've wrangled Talbot into an upcoming project. We'll know more this evening. The program begins at 6:30 p.m. and is one hour long.

[email protected] , or just show up. Honestly, they won't turn you away for being unprepared; they're nice opera folk.