LONDON - (Reuters) A British opera star in a "skinhead" costume had to sing a famous aria to prove his identity when challenged in the street by two angry black men. Singer Quentin Hayes was dressed to look like a white racist thug in Union Jack shirt, drainpipe jeans and heavy "Doc Martens" boots, The Times reported. When he slipped out during rehearsals to make a telephone call, he was confronted and forced up against a wall by the two men, who took him for a member of a far-right group. Hayes tried to explain that he was dressed for a performance of Janacek's "The Adventures of Vixen Sharp Ears". But it was only when he burst into Figaro's aria from "The Barber of Seville" that his assailants accepted his story. "It wasn't my best performance, but it seemed to spook them," he said. "They either believed me or thought I was mad."