Sari Barabas

Sari Barabas0:00

This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

Speaker 10:08

And you began your career as as a dancer.

Sari Barabas0:10

As a dancer. That's right.

Sari Barabas0:14

Really, my mother wanted to be on the stage, you see.

Speaker 10:17

Yes.

Sari Barabas0:17

But it in her time

Sari Barabas0:20

Coming from a

Sari Barabas0:22

You you call it a nice family, so it was impossible to to go on the stage. It was something very bad.

Sari Barabas0:30

But uh

Sari Barabas0:32

I love to dance.

Speaker 10:33

Why did you give up, Dancy?

Sari Barabas0:36

I get an accident on my

Sari Barabas0:38

Foot.

Speaker 10:39

Yes.

Sari Barabas0:39

And I couldn't balance any more, so I had to give up. Of course there were tears, but

Sari Barabas0:46

Twas no hand.

Speaker 10:47

Mm-hmm. So you decided to be a singer?

Sari Barabas0:49

My father wanted me always very much I should be a singer. I had a little voice.

Speaker 10:53

Yeah.

Sari Barabas0:54

So he took me to the music academy while I was sixteen years old.

Speaker 10:59

Mm-hmm.

Sari Barabas1:01

And there it I was studying for a year, but for this first year, you see, they took almost everybody.

Sari Barabas1:08

But then for the second year you had to go for an examination.

Sari Barabas1:12

And so I sang then something, a little song.

Sari Barabas1:16

And many of these professors, they knew me as a dancer.

Sari Barabas1:22

So he said, Oh, Miss Parabash,

Sari Barabas1:27

Please.

Sari Barabas1:28

Stick to the dancing.

Sari Barabas1:30

And forget about singing.

Speaker 11:32

Oh dear.

Speaker 11:34

That didn't help.

Sari Barabas1:35

Oh, it was a big heartache.

Speaker 11:37

Very cap guy.

Sari Barabas1:38

I kept going, yes, and then I uh uh got to a

Sari Barabas1:43

private school, private teacher. It was one of the best in Budapest at that time.

Speaker 11:49

God bless him. Yes. And then you began to sing Welcome.

Sari Barabas1:52

I began to sing, uh at first uh modern operators and then classical operators and then at the end the

Sari Barabas2:02

Opera

Speaker 12:03

Yes. Now during the early years of the war things were fairly quiet in Budapest.

Sari Barabas2:08

Well, it was quiet, but it was very nice.

Speaker 12:10

Mm.

Sari Barabas2:11

It was beautiful and we nearly uh

Sari Barabas2:14

felt that there is a war.

Speaker 12:18

But it didn't worry you very much in Budapest.

Sari Barabas2:20

No. Oh no.

Speaker 12:22

But then the Germans came in one side and

Sari Barabas2:24

The Germans came in in forty-fourth March.

Speaker 12:27

She has.

Sari Barabas2:28

You know, they marched in

Sari Barabas2:30

And then

Sari Barabas2:32

Uh it was stopped then for a while, everything.

Sari Barabas2:37

Well

Speaker 12:38

And then the Russians started to come in from the other side.

Sari Barabas2:38

Russians dot

Sari Barabas2:41

Yes.

Speaker 12:43

You got away from Budapest. Was it a very tough experience?

Sari Barabas2:47

Oh.

Sari Barabas2:48

I can say that.

Sari Barabas2:51

I was on the roads for twenty nine days with horses wagon.

Speaker 12:56

Mm-hmm.

Sari Barabas2:56

and never sleeping in a house or in a home.

Speaker 13:00

Yes. And bombing and all the beast on this.

Sari Barabas3:02

Oh, dear. Yes, it was awful. And really I I never thought I'd been on stage again.

Speaker 13:09

Where did you get to?

Sari Barabas3:11

to Germany.

Speaker 13:12

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 13:13

As a newly arrived refugee, could you find any work?

Sari Barabas3:17

Oh, immediately. Immediately because the Americans came in, you see.

Speaker 13:23

Mm.

Sari Barabas3:23

And they found out that there is up in a village, in a little house, there is a girl who can sing and speaks quite well English.

Speaker 13:32

Yeah.

Sari Barabas3:34

So they came.

Sari Barabas3:36

And then through this uh

Sari Barabas3:39

Then I report for them that I am here and I can sing and play the piano and sing popular songs and arias and everything, and I can dance, so give me some work. And they did.

Speaker 13:51

Bend it.

Sari Barabas3:52

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 13:52

So you began to entertain the American troops.

Sari Barabas3:52

Yeah.

Speaker 13:55

When did you start to work again in the opera house?

Sari Barabas4:00

Forty six?

Speaker 14:01

Yes.

Sari Barabas4:01

In Germany, in Wiesbaden.

Sari Barabas4:05

And then I got to Switzerland.

Sari Barabas4:09

where I made an uh audition in Zurich in the Opera House and they took me immediately.

Speaker 14:15

Mm-hmm.

Sari Barabas4:16

And uh so it was then a marvellous time for a whole season.

Speaker 14:21

And then you made a very successful tour in America.

Sari Barabas4:24

I did, yes, I sank through forty-five states.

Sari Barabas4:29

It was a great experience and I I know America much, much better than many Americans do.

Speaker 14:37

Yeah.

Sari Barabas4:38

And it was beautiful. I sang with the San Francisco Opera Company.

Speaker 14:41

Yeah.

Sari Barabas4:42

And I've been on T V and on broadcast every week for ten months.