Valerie Masterson

Speaker 10:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. For rights' reasons, the music is shorter than on the original broadcast. The presenter is Roy Plumley. I hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:29

Our castaway this week is a singer, the young opera star Valerie Masterson.

Presenter0:34

How well could you endure loneliness?

Valerie Masterson0:36

I just don't think I'd survive. Not complete loneliness on a desert island. I like to have time to myself.

Valerie Masterson0:43

When I feel that if I need people, you know, they're there, but

Presenter0:47

What about the situation itself? Would it start any irrational fears?

Valerie Masterson0:52

I've got those already. I don't need to go to the

Valerie Masterson0:56

But uh yes, I mean uh just to name a few, I'm petrified of the dark and uh I can't bear creepy crawlies.

Presenter1:05

Uh

Valerie Masterson1:05

So what am I going to do?

Presenter1:05

Uh

Presenter1:06

I don't know. What would you be happiest to have got away from on a happier note?

Valerie Masterson1:11

I think the telephone.

Presenter1:13

Yes.

Presenter1:14

Did you have any plan in choosing your eight records? What's the music to do for you?

Valerie Masterson1:18

Some of them I've chosen for nostalgic reasons, but I think it's basically just the sort of thing I would put on in the evening if I ever get a free evening to listen to records.

Presenter1:28

What's the first one you've just

Valerie Masterson1:30

The first is the Cesar Frank Symphony in D minor.

Presenter2:33

Part of the first movement of the Cesar Frank Symphony.

Presenter2:36

Herbert von Karian conducting the Barris Orchestra.

Presenter2:39

What's your second record?

Valerie Masterson2:41

Uh my second, I've chosen Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel.

Speaker 32:54

Skid

Speaker 32:56

Uh

Speaker 32:58

And friends just can't be found like a bridge over trouble.

Speaker 33:13

Uh

Presenter3:16

A musical family.

Valerie Masterson3:18

Yes, uh my father was a professional singer.

Valerie Masterson3:23

Uh, he died when I was a year old, so I didn't really have much contact with him.

Presenter3:28

Was there a lot of music in your home?

Valerie Masterson3:32

There was quite a lot on the lighter side, I would say, yes.

Presenter3:35

When did you first show interest? When did you start to?

Presenter3:38

Play the piano or sing.

Valerie Masterson3:40

Uh

Valerie Masterson3:41

I started singing at school.

Valerie Masterson3:45

But before that I took dancing lessons at started about the age of four.

Presenter3:49

What was in your mind? Was it music more than theatre or theatre more than music?

Valerie Masterson3:54

I think just theatre, because I I remember stories from

Valerie Masterson3:57

way back in my childhood about my father, really. I think that's where it all started. It all sounded so exciting and romantic.

Valerie Masterson4:05

And it was a a life, of course, that I didn't have any part in at that stage.

Presenter4:10

When did you decide that music was to be your profession?

Valerie Masterson4:14

Uh

Valerie Masterson4:16

About the age of eighteen, I would say.

Presenter4:18

And you came to the Royal College of Music.

Valerie Masterson4:21

Yes, after

Valerie Masterson4:23

Qualifying as a radiographer.

Presenter4:24

As a radiographer.

Valerie Masterson4:25

Yes.

Presenter4:26

Was that important to you or was that a sort of second string in in case things went wrong with singing?

Valerie Masterson4:32

It was a second string. It was always meant to be, yes, a good standby in case I um didn't make it as a singer.

Presenter4:39

Yes.

Presenter4:40

Was your grant enough to keep you at Royal College, or did you do odd jobs while you were there?

Valerie Masterson4:44

It certainly wasn't enough to keep me really. I I um

Valerie Masterson4:48

Did

Valerie Masterson4:49

Several things I sang in pantomime in summer season.

Presenter4:53

Where?

Valerie Masterson4:54

Ah, now the first I think was a pantomime in Cambridge. I was in the chorus of that.

Valerie Masterson4:59

With Cyril Fletcher.

Valerie Masterson5:01

He was very nice.

Presenter5:02

He still is, unfortunately.

Presenter5:05

Yes, where else?

Valerie Masterson5:07

I did a summer season in Eastbourne with the Falderalls and pantomime in Oxford.

Presenter5:12

Yeah.

Valerie Masterson5:13

It began to take over a little bit, I think. You know, it began to get more more offers really. And in the end, I remember the director of college said, Vari, you really must sort out whether you are going to do this sort of music as a full-time profession.

Valerie Masterson5:26

Or whether you still want to keep on with this idea of being an opera singer. If you want to be an opera singer, then you must come back here from time to time.

Valerie Masterson5:34

Not so.

Presenter5:35

What is that?

Valerie Masterson5:35

Yeah

Presenter5:36

You left the Royal College with the award of Best Singer of the Year.

Valerie Masterson5:40

Yes.

Presenter5:41

What happened next?

Valerie Masterson5:42

Uh I had a scholarship to study in Italy. I went there for a year.

Presenter5:46

Yes.

Presenter5:47

About?

Valerie Masterson5:48

And then I went to Austria, to Salzburg, to the Landers Theatre and sang in with their opera company. And then I came back to England.

Valerie Masterson5:58

intended marrying and it was going to be very difficult if I was going to be on the continent for most of

Valerie Masterson6:04

of the year.

Valerie Masterson6:05

So I decided to come back to England and I simply did auditions for every opera company here.

Presenter6:12

Mm-hmm. And the doily cart said yes.

Valerie Masterson6:14

And the Dorica said yes.

Presenter6:16

and you played principal soprano parts with them and you went on the American tours.

Valerie Masterson6:22

Yes. I did an American tour about seven weeks after I joined the company, so I was very lucky. But then soon after that, my husband joined the orchestra of the Doilikart, and we traveled together for five and a half years.

Presenter6:35

Yes. And you did a film of the Mikado.

Valerie Masterson6:39

While I was with the Doyle Cart, we made a Warner Bros. full-length film of the Mikado.

Valerie Masterson6:44

And of course since then I did one for the BBC and most recently a Yeoman of the Guard for BBC.

Presenter6:50

Yes, Elsie.

Valerie Masterson6:51

else the main audience.

Presenter6:54

Then

Presenter6:55

Your first baby arrived, Jason, and you had time to rethink your career, a rather important pause.

Valerie Masterson7:02

Yes.

Presenter7:03

Well, let's break off at that point then and have record number three.

Valerie Masterson7:07

which will be um the opening of the second act of The Bocado.

Speaker 37:46

I never said.

Presenter8:12

The opening of the second act of The Mikado.

Presenter8:15

Buy the Deulicart Opera Company.

Valerie Masterson8:17

Right.

Presenter8:18

Now what was the next step? Obviously after the arrival of baby Jason you didn't want to travel about for a bit.

Valerie Masterson8:24

No. Although in fact I did do quite a bit of traveling because then I simply was a freelance artist doing concerts and at the same time auditioning for various companies.

Valerie Masterson8:37

And I think the first

Valerie Masterson8:38

group to give me um an opera to do anyway was uh at the Camden Festival. I did the part of Aminaida in Tancredie.

Presenter8:45

Yes, unknown territory

Valerie Masterson8:47

Absolutely unknown, yes.

Presenter8:50

What did tenth grady lead to?

Valerie Masterson8:53

Well, nothing immediately in the sense that uh I didn't get people rushing up to the dressing room door asking me to do anything, but I think it was probably a good showcase for me. And very soon after that I was asked to cover the role of Constanța in Seraglio.

Presenter9:06

Yes.

Valerie Masterson9:06

for the what was then the Saddle as Wells Opera Company.

Valerie Masterson9:11

And I think it would have simply been a question of covering a role.

Valerie Masterson9:14

Except that um I went in one morning and and the soprano was sick and I was asked to sing the rehearsal.

Presenter9:20

Just like that. One of the most difficult roles in the repertoire, isn't it, Constanza?

Valerie Masterson9:25

Well, yes. Um that morning I didn't have time to think. I just had to get up there and do it.

Presenter9:31

Not a bad way. If the Saddlers Wales had already moved to the Coliseum at that time.

Valerie Masterson9:35

Yes.

Presenter9:36

Now, what other parts have you played for Saddler's Wells, which is now, of course, the English national opera?

Valerie Masterson9:42

Well, after Soralio I did um Orpheus in the Underworld, quite a different uh part.

Presenter9:49

Test

Valerie Masterson9:50

And then the Countess in Country.

Valerie Masterson9:53

Adele inflate a mas.

Valerie Masterson9:55

Manon Traviato.

Presenter9:57

Yes. And you did ask her the page in in Verde's The Mask Ball and it isn't often that the part of the page steals the notices.

Presenter10:06

Um Rose and Cavalier, Sophie, the new production. And what next?

Valerie Masterson10:10

Michaela and Carmen I'm going to do next.

Presenter10:12

Def.

Presenter10:13

Are you a quick study?

Valerie Masterson10:15

Well, I've had to be up to now, but I'd like to think that in the future I'll have a longer time to study the roles that I'm going to do.

Presenter10:23

You've been singing all these lyric roles and you made your Covent Garden debut in The Ring in Rheingold.

Valerie Masterson10:29

Yes. The one that we did at the garden, of course, was a completely new event in theatre for me. It it was um

Valerie Masterson10:36

a question of lying down most of the time.

Valerie Masterson10:39

Being seen through a mirror.

Speaker 310:40

Mm-hmm.

Valerie Masterson10:41

From an audience point of view, I mean. But of course, we also had to see the conductor through this mirror. In other words, he was upside down.

Presenter10:50

This was underneath the right to explain it all.

Valerie Masterson10:53

To explain it all. Yes, yes. Um, but it was kind of singing with your back to the audience, uh, seeing the conductor upside down, but apart from that it was

Presenter11:01

Uh let's

Valerie Masterson11:01

But less enjoyable.

Presenter11:02

Fagner with an upside-down conductor. Something new in share business every week. Let's have record number four.

Valerie Masterson11:09

Well record number four, I would like very much to take one that belongs to my two children because I'd miss them very much and it's called I'm a Little Teapot.

Presenter11:47

What about putting up a HUD?

Valerie Masterson11:50

Um yes, I'd I'd I'd have a good try at doing that. What worries me really is where I'd put it though. I think I'd have to put it up a tree, wouldn't I? And how would I do that?

Presenter11:59

A windy hut. Oh, that's a bit ambitious. A sheltered spot near the beach.

Valerie Masterson12:04

You don't think I'll be eaten up during the night?

Presenter12:07

No. You'll never know what's going to climb trees for a start.

Presenter12:12

What about food?

Valerie Masterson12:14

Food.

Valerie Masterson12:15

Ah well, um

Valerie Masterson12:17

I've long

Valerie Masterson12:18

I felt that I would like to be a vegetarian, so this would be my golden opportunity.

Presenter12:22

Magnificent chance. You wouldn't bother with fishing or anything of that sort.

Valerie Masterson12:25

Well, I c I simply couldn't kill anything, so I couldn't really attempt fishing, no.

Presenter12:30

Would you try to escape?

Valerie Masterson12:33

Yes, eventually. Yes.

Presenter12:34

Yes. Any ideas on that?

Valerie Masterson12:37

Um well I I just

Valerie Masterson12:39

try and build a raft and set off.

Valerie Masterson12:42

One luxury

Valerie Masterson12:43

Well, I'd like a large sea chest full of

Presenter12:44

What?

Valerie Masterson12:47

Beauty products including

Valerie Masterson12:49

Soap, shampoo, face cream and perfume.

Presenter12:53

Please.

Presenter12:57

Can one book apart from the Bible, Shakespeare, big encyclopedias?

Valerie Masterson13:01

Um well I don't know if it's published actually. I thought maybe I'd take the Roy Plumney Do-it-yourself desert island.

Valerie Masterson13:07

Disc book

Presenter13:10

What's in that, then?

Valerie Masterson13:11

It's a survival manual.

Presenter13:13

No, I haven't got around to a survival manual yet, but we'll find you the best one there is.

Presenter13:20

And thank you, Valerie Masterson, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.

Valerie Masterson13:25

I've enjoyed it. Thank you.

Presenter13:26

Goodbye, everyone.