Giuseppe Di Stefano

Speaker 30:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty one, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:27

This week our castaway is the tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano.

Presenter0:30

Signor Di Stefano, have you ever imagined yourself on a desert island? Well, I come from an island and I come from Sicily, you know. That's quite a big island. It's a big island. Six million people, you know. Yes. Not quite the same. Not quite we had in view. No.

Giuseppe Di Stefano0:38

Quite a big eye.

Speaker 40:39

That's a

Giuseppe Di Stefano0:43

Not what we have in view.

Presenter0:45

Could you endure loneliness? Well, not me.

Presenter0:48

will be tough for me. You like people around. Yes. Now you have just eight records, which may have to last a very long time. Any eight you like. What's the first one? Well, being Sicilian

Presenter1:01

Coming from an island.

Presenter1:04

I've loved one Sicilian song. Yes. And this Sicilian song

Presenter1:08

Which the the English audience particularly always loved. I recorded this many years ago.

Presenter1:14

Is called the muteti di lupaglio. What does that mean?

Presenter1:18

Means like the Paglio in Siena, you know, that's a very famous horse races in Siena, the Paglio. See, this is a horse races.

Giuseppe Di Stefano1:23

Yeah.

Presenter1:26

In Palermo, in Sicily. It is a song of victory. And it's a folk song. It's a folk song.

Giuseppe Di Stefano1:46

Ukava drutzi van ni khwaratho unni waba.

Giuseppe Di Stefano1:55

Uh

Giuseppe Di Stefano1:56

Ah

Giuseppe Di Stefano2:15

Umarativi Moratha Filiji Niva Pikyarir Kora.

Giuseppe Di Stefano2:26

Uh

Presenter2:29

A Sicilian folk song to start with. You didn't stay in Sicily very long, did you? No, until uh five and a half. Then I f with my mother we we joined my father, who was in Milan already, in the north. Yes. And there I've been all my life. Your father was in the Carabinieri, wasn't he? My father was a Carabiniere, my mother was a dressmaker. So it was a real Sicilian style. Was there music in your in your home? Nobody knew anything about music. As a matter of fact, when I start to talk about making a

Giuseppe Di Stefano2:49

Yeah.

Presenter2:58

uh sing uh to become a tenor.

Presenter3:01

They almost threw me out of the house. What is that? Something to eat? I said, No, no, no, tennis. It's somebody who sings and makes money with singing.

Presenter3:09

I don't believe, said my father, you better be another Caribbeaner, you better do something different, but what is this tenor?

Presenter3:15

You did sing in the church choir a as a boy? Yes, I did sing.

Presenter3:20

but never uh arouse an enthusiasm from my parents. They they never came, they never cared about that. But uh a young man who was four years older than me, he was that means he was nineteen, twenty he became my friend because he loved opera. He was a one of these uh uh opera fans. And one day while we were playing cards and the he was singing all the time because he was very lucky. So I had to listen all the time opera arias. As a matter of fact, the first opera arias I learned from him.

Presenter3:51

But I finally lost, and he lost while he took a long breath to sing the high note of Ladon and Bobby, which stayed in his throat, and I won in that uh particular moment, so I sang the the high note. Uh

Presenter4:08

A big high note. For the first time I mean, by the time we had this friendship, I was already sixteen, see? So my voice grew a lot from the the very first time he heard me in the church. And then, instead of getting mad, he was

Presenter4:24

So happy, was surprised. What a voice you have. Maybe you should sing opera. Tomorrow I'll bring you to a teacher and let's find out what kind of future you will have. So you took his advice, you took lessons?

Presenter4:36

And you began going to the opera house? Well, it's not that easy, eh? Because I I didn't I di I hate opera.

Giuseppe Di Stefano4:36

You began

Presenter4:42

You hate opera. I love to go to dance every night with my friend. I love songs. I didn't care about opera. But finally he got me one night in the in the Scala.

Presenter4:51

and I thought I had to go if I want to be a tenant.

Presenter4:53

Because every night was telling me that I had a very pretty voice and then this and that. But I thought he was talking out of friendship.

Presenter5:00

I didn't didn't believe for one second that all this would become true. So when I finally I went with him and the first experience was turndo and I didn't like at all. But few few weeks later I heard Beneminiogigli, always in the scala, in uh Polliutto from Don Linzetti. And then when I heard the voice of Benemino Gigli, I went wild. I started to love him and to love the opera. And then later I loved Skipper, who was a b even a better musician than than uh than the great GD.

Presenter5:30

And then you you you took lessons. You went to the conservatoire? Yes, but only to study music. So I I study contrabasso, you know, the big the big uh vocal. Double bass. Double bass, exactly. But just to learn music. And during that time I met Gilly.

Giuseppe Di Stefano5:40

The dumb base.

Presenter5:46

I I mean, I went to his hotel, I went to shake his hand, but when he was in front of him, I was uh so so full of emotion I could not talk.

Presenter5:53

I said, Yeah, calm, calma, calm. I said, What do you want? How I would like to sing for you. He said, What are you studying? I'm studying the conservatorio, the milano. But he said, Well, tomorrow I'm coming to the conservatorio to give a lesson, uh, master class, and then you will sing for me, okay? Okay, ciao, bye. So I left him, but I forgot to tell him that I was a student of uh double bass.

Giuseppe Di Stefano5:54

Mm-hmm.

Presenter6:17

See, I saw the next day I heard him, but I could not sing. I was not a vocal student.

Giuseppe Di Stefano6:18

See, I think it's

Presenter6:22

Let's have your second record. What shall we have next?

Presenter6:25

Well, uh I would love to play the the maestro Toscanini together, me with the maestro, I mean in the Verdi's Requiem, but I had the great uh joy and honor to sing with him in uh in the fifty years anniversary of uh Verdi's death.

Presenter6:39

In New York, in the Carnegie Hall. Mm-hmm. So this is will be in Jamisko from the Verdis rapium.

Giuseppe Di Stefano6:47

Injuries caught on

Giuseppe Di Stefano6:57

Yeah.

Presenter7:29

Your own recording of the Injamisco from Verdi's Requiem, the NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Now, before you could start your singing career, you had to go into the Army, I believe.

Presenter7:42

Yes, of course. I was not looking for, but I had to.

Presenter7:46

Where were you stationed?

Presenter7:47

I was in uh near Milano, Alessandria, in Piemonte. What was your job in the army? Well, my job was to to be a soldier. And uh it was a tough one because I was in the artillery.

Presenter7:59

So and then uh uh it was very easy to catch in cold, you know. So one day I started to go to the infirmary and ask the doctor what I could do because I was

Presenter8:08

afraid of uh my voice. Already I knew it by the time that I

Presenter8:13

I could have a future in the in the opera. I had one.

Presenter8:16

A couple of singing contests, I made an audition in the Scala with Maestro Gino Marinuzzi. They all predicted that I had a future. So every morning marching, you know, forty kilometers, fifty kilometers, twenty kilometers in the snow, in the rain, this was bad. I didn't like it. I would have preferred a car, you see. So I went to the to the doctor and tried to get a more comfortable life out of it. And so he he hated me.

Presenter8:45

He when he saw me every day, he used to call me Lavativo, which means that every day the group of those guys who never they don't want to march or don't want to to do the heavy. But I never told him that I was a a singer. So he hated me and uh yeah I had no excuse, he just hated me every day. But one day a corporal, who was a chauffeur of the coronel, the my regiment, uh came in the in the room where I where I was waiting for the doctor.

Presenter9:12

and uh and the doctor saw him and and immediately became another man, he started to smile. Oh, my friend got a go to sing something for me. See, I forgot to tell you, the doctor was Neapolitan and he loved singing, but I didn't know.

Presenter9:27

See, so when Garagozzo came, he started to smile, he became another man and uh said, Sing something for me. This Garragozzo, who still is alive and is a taxi driver in Syracusa, Sicily. This Ragozzo told but Dottore, how can I sing in the presence of Giuseppe di Stefano? because he loved me very much. We used to sing together in the Osterille, so he he knew my my voice and he thought I was a great tenor. So he thought, How can I sing in front of Giuseppe di Stefano? And the doctor said, Who is Joe Giuseppe Stefano? What, that that guy there, the fellow there.

Presenter10:02

Again the doctor, when he when he saw me, he became very dramatically serious. He was mad again. That guy is not possible. I hate him. It's not possible that he sings well. Well, he asked me to sing. And and I never

Presenter10:17

obey an order like that one. I sank immediately. I remember Geje Remanina. And from that moment he he got me away from the battalion where I went on heavy duty and he he asked me to stay in the infirmary with him.

Giuseppe Di Stefano10:31

With him.

Presenter10:32

So I said here you'll be

Presenter10:34

You'll be very comfortable, you can take care of your voice. And one thing, you will sing for me when I get uh mad. You know, I get mad very easy because lava T V like you, we have plenty of here, so you you will sing when I

Presenter10:47

When I get mad. But I didn't know they was getting mad so so often, you know. That's all so it was another heavy job. And but it was inside, see. At one point they were going to send you off to the Eastern Front, weren't they? Yeah, we were supposed to get to go together with the with my regiment. Against the Russians. Against against the the Russians. That was serious. That was very serious, I mean.

Giuseppe Di Stefano11:05

As I said,

Presenter11:07

That's why I sang good with the doctor. I was always in good. Tried to convince him that I had a future and that, you know, said, Doctor, what do you think? Russia's gonna be very bad for my voice. Shut up. You're gonna come with me?

Presenter11:23

You wanna come with me? Because who's gonna sing for us in Russia in the night when we are all alone in the in the steppe by in the snow the remember doctor said, we know, Garagotto, the chauffeur of the coronel, he doesn't sing bad, you know, he's got the pretty voice too.

Presenter11:39

Never mind. I was kidding, but you know, I was trying. And uh so when the order came to go to Russia, my mother came, I said goodbye, and I was ready to live with him. But uh out of the blue sky, the same morning the regiment left, he called me and he told me that he he could not sleep all night and he had a a big problem in his conscience and he he thought that uh it would be better that I stay as a soldier. I was nothing special. He said, So maybe you stay here and one day you will sing for our country. You'll be a our Italian singer at Henry. And that he left and the poor guy he died as a as a hero in in Russia.

Giuseppe Di Stefano12:15

Yeah.

Presenter12:23

Anyway, you were able to stay in in in Milan. You you you sang in in a cinema for a while, didn't you? But this was during the war, exactly, when the regiment left.

Giuseppe Di Stefano12:30

When the

Presenter12:31

For Russia

Presenter12:33

This uh doctore wrote to me from Russia and then uh he told uh his colleague in in in Alessandria, said, Let him give you a couple of months of uh rest as I was tired. The poor guy was thinking about me that I should go to Milano and study a little bit. So I had two months of convalescence and I went to Milano.

Giuseppe Di Stefano12:51

And that one

Presenter12:53

In that moment my my parents were very poor and the the money was with a big inflation, so uh I tried to help them.

Presenter13:00

To have the family singing songs. And you were singing pop songs. It made a big success. I made the first record.

Presenter13:06

It's Nino Florio. That's the way it started, Nino Florio. But then after two months, I went back to the to the army.

Presenter13:13

And then the German came, so I escaped with the help of a German soldier, telling him that uh I was an opera singer. So in the night he helped me. To escape, then I went to Switzerland, and in Switzerland I started to sing. Right, so you dodged the Russians, and now you dodged the Germans. So let's break at this point to another record. What shall we have?

Giuseppe Di Stefano13:30

Another record.

Presenter13:32

When I sang with the um Toscanini, I was staying at the Hotel Isaiah New York, and in in the same hotel

Presenter13:39

Horowitz was leaving in nineteen fifty one, the pianist.

Giuseppe Di Stefano13:41

Miennas

Presenter13:44

And you know, Horovitz was is the son in law of Toscanini.

Presenter13:47

So they had a great joy to to to know him personally.

Presenter13:51

And uh

Presenter13:52

One night I was invited to the concert, the Kanigol that Horowitz gave there on the 51.

Presenter13:57

But boy, what the pianist! I went to this concert. I was so impressed from this da couple that you did. They were like.

Presenter14:05

Played Now, this was his uncle, yes.

Presenter15:07

Aurovitz playing Stars and Stripes Forever.

Presenter15:10

Now, Giuseppe Desdauvo, you were safe and sound in Switzerland.

Presenter15:14

Was it difficult to get in, to get over the mountains? No. Over the mountains was simple through the the Stresa, which is a small river. And around that uh September it was there was not much water. Were you interned? As a soldier I was a corporal. So I was I was interned there two months. You said you were a very bad soldier and now you're a corporal. You couldn't have been all that bad. No, but I became a corporal in Switzerland because I always wanted to be a corporal. Anybody can say anything in that such a confusion in that moment. You said you were a corporal, yes, good. Yes. I want to say captain when they asked me. They're very ambitious, see? But uh they went when I was trying to say cap, there was somebody who knew me as a Nino Florio. They said, Ciao Nino, so I said cap porale.

Giuseppe Di Stefano15:49

When they asked

Presenter16:01

Instead of captain, is he?

Giuseppe Di Stefano16:01

Instead of captain, is he?

Presenter16:03

But they let you go on singing.

Presenter16:05

No, yeah. When I was in the camp, I I'm very shy. Now I am with age, you know, after a career I became a little more open. But in in th in those years I very was very shy. And uh we w when we were in the camp, the Swiss people used to come with chocolate, cigarettes. I was getting nothing because I was always the last one.

Presenter16:28

But so when they start to sing.

Presenter16:30

And when I I started to sing, everybody came uh all the the Swiss people were looking for me, so I had chocolate and cigarette that I opened the store in the camp, you see. In the meanwhile, I start to smoke. And this was bad because I had so many cigarettes, nothing to do in the camp. So I picked up smoking. But it didn't hurt me to smoke until later, because I was already a man, I mean twenty two years old.

Presenter16:53

Yeah, I didn't start very young. So for many years it didn't bother me to smoke. But then after it did it bother me.

Presenter16:59

But from the camp the a corporal brought me

Presenter17:03

to Zurich for an audition.

Presenter17:06

And there I made an audition in the Staats Oper, and the operator in Jurich.

Presenter17:12

So all around the camp they they knew about this young tenor.

Presenter17:15

And one Swiss man, who by the way was born in uh in Palermo, so he spoke fluent Italian.

Presenter17:21

He was vice director of the the radio in uh Lausanne.

Giuseppe Di Stefano17:24

Mm-hmm.

Presenter17:25

And uh he asked the Swiss Government to to let me free to be able to sing and study Lausanne. So I was very fortunate. Tho tho those were the best years of my life. Yes. See because uh well they spoiled me, the Swiss, you know. I started to sing the first operas and the fer I start even EMI. I made my first records for EMI. Yes, those early records must be very rare and valuable now, the ones you made in Switzerland. Nineteen forty-four, yes.

Giuseppe Di Stefano17:49

Nineteen

Presenter17:52

And you stayed in Switzerland until the war was over.

Presenter17:54

The the war was finished in 1944 for us. I went back in 1945 in in the summer.

Speaker 317:59

Uh

Giuseppe Di Stefano17:59

Uh

Presenter18:01

At uh less than eight months later I was on stage.

Presenter18:04

I have a note here which says that on april twentieth, nineteen forty six, you made your debut as Des Couilleux in Massnet's Manon. Which theatre was that in? This was the Reggio Milia in the North of Italy. How long before you sang in La Scala?

Presenter18:17

Now, eleven months after, I sang in the Scala. And ten months later, in nineteen forty-eight, I was just singing in the metal, regular regoletto. Well, at that point, let's have your fourth record. What's that to be? Well, now, you know, being in an island, I think that uh I don't wanna hear I I like to to hear very sweet music, full of uh uh atmosphere. So I I would uh like to to to play Maler, yes, the adagio of the fifth symphony, I think.

Presenter19:45

The adagietto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony, the New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barbirodi.

Presenter19:53

Now you made your debut in the Metropolitan, New York. You sang regularly there for years. Which celebrated ladies did you sing opposite?

Presenter20:01

At the Met

Presenter20:02

Well, I sang with the

Presenter20:04

Le Li Pons, uh Lichalbanese, Vidou Sayao, all the the lyrics soprano, because I was a ve very lyric tenor, you see, the French repertoire I used to do, Mignon with the beautiful Riza Stevens, American Medi soprano. And in São Paulo, you sang opposite a lady who was to be very celebrated indeed and a very good friend of yours. Yes. That was Maria Carlos. What was the opera? That was Traviata, but it was a rare occasion, you know. The big season was in Rio de Janeiro. In those years, forty eight, forty nine, fifty, fifty one, they had the biggest season in the world. I mean, the season with all the b the most expensive, the best singers there were in the world in that moment.

Presenter20:45

Of course, they had Carlos and Thebaldi together in the same season. So you can imagine the fight was going on. So they such a fight.

Presenter20:54

In Rio. But then we went uh to São Paulo. And in São Paulo, the they offered two traviata to me to sing. One with Tebaldi and one with uh colas. So you can imagine they didn't even know the tenor. Who was the tenor? Who was the baritone? They were trying to outsing each other, you know. Tebaldi was very big in that moment, beautiful voice, and and she was singing with beautiful technique. It was in top condition. So it was and colours too. So you can imagine what what kind of traviata I was in.

Presenter21:29

But uh Maria always forgot.

Giuseppe Di Stefano21:29

Panda

Presenter21:32

Six months later we were in Mexico, and there in Mexico we sang five operas together.

Presenter21:37

So for Maria always, our m first time we sang together was in Mexico. She didn't remember anything about the the the the the São Paulo Traviata. Too preoccupied with the Baldi.

Giuseppe Di Stefano21:45

Pariah

Presenter21:47

Yes, and there was only one night, no rehearsal, you know, just jump in, boom. Maybe I didn't make a big impression.

Giuseppe Di Stefano21:52

And it

Presenter21:54

I cannot tell you.

Presenter21:56

And you began recording operas with with Maria Callas. Where did you record them?

Presenter22:01

The first stop in Milano. Yes.

Presenter22:03

Because uh uh in in in those years London Decker was starting to make operas, but I I refused, I didn't accept Wittebaldi. I was supposed to make a record with London Decker Wittibaldi, but uh we didn't reach an agreement economically.

Presenter22:18

So

Presenter22:19

When I left for Milano, for the Scala, uh I was so lucky that yeah, my was starting uh this big program with Maria Carlas, and I was free to accept, and that's what happened. Well, I've got a list of ten of them here that you recorded with with Kalas.

Presenter22:33

You still hadn't made your debut in Britain.

Presenter22:36

No, my debut in Britain is b many years after, was in eighteen sixty one, sixty three.

Presenter22:42

In uh Tosca and uh in Bohem. Yes. Tosca was not bad and I did three performances, but Bohem I was in a little trouble with my

Presenter22:50

my w my windpipe.

Presenter22:52

So I only sang one performance. Let's have another record. Well, since we speak about Callas, what about one of the most beautiful moments of enjoyment for me in the du in my career was to do Puritani with Maria, because in the second act

Presenter23:08

When uh I was not on stage, but from my dressing room I could listen.

Presenter23:14

The most beautiful thing of Maria in Quila Voce Su Aso Ave in the second act of Politani from Bellini, and Bellini is from Catania, I am from Catania.

Giuseppe Di Stefano23:37

Breathe your heart. The past family

Presenter23:42

Kings family.

Giuseppe Di Stefano23:52

Praise him.

Giuseppe Di Stefano24:18

Uh

Presenter24:26

Maria Callas in an aria from Bellini's I Puritani.

Presenter24:31

At one time you said that uh

Presenter24:33

We had sung a lot of opera, but on the whole you preferred recitals and concerts because you didn't get as much interference from conductors and directors. Yes, that's true. You still prefer the concert hall? Yes.

Presenter24:46

See, I need a lot of rehearsals in the opera. And I need also an old-fashioned conductor, the one who looks in your eyes, smiles.

Presenter24:54

Mum in the world, you know, to inspire me, to sing together, if you will. That's easy to express. We were used to this kind. Maestro Serafini used to smile all the time because this smiling, the squad of Sorizo smiling, is the real school of singing. And the same Toscanini was guiding me with the eyes. See, and the Sabbath are the same. I then.

Presenter25:17

But then we had carrion, you know, great conductor, but a different style. So I have to adjust to this style. They don't guide you. I need to be guided, because I think that's a very tough job. You have to remember words, notes.

Presenter25:30

So I need a little help from the conductor.

Presenter25:34

Now the conductor don't care about too much about the words, about the the interpretation. They look all very very serious. In any case, I enjoy to with the with the piano because I have a a direct contact with the public.

Presenter25:48

I even tell jokes sometimes when the the atmosphere is very very warm, you know, not not before I sing.

Giuseppe Di Stefano25:52

Yeah.

Presenter25:54

When everything is going fine, then uh I enjoy myself too spraying the songs.

Presenter26:01

It's time we had another record. We got to your sixth. Yes. Uh recently in uh in New York I was so lucky to listen to Perlman.

Presenter26:11

The violinist, Isaac Perman. And I love him so much. I love artists, I enjoy the music, you know. So now I would like to hear my Italian composer, Vivaldi, play and conducted by Perman. And this will be the second movement of the fourth season of Vivaldi. Which season? Autumn.

Presenter27:22

The second movement of Autumn from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, Itzak Perlman conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Presenter27:30

What are you up to now? What's your next move? You're going to direct an opera? I you know, I always said that between the age of forty and sixty I will have fun, because I think the man has many interests in life from forty to sixty. Certainly. When I'll be sixty, I go back to the opera, I said, because then I have less interest in life, I go back to my first love opera. And I said this, of course, that is for fun, or to make my critics mad, you see.

Giuseppe Di Stefano27:49

Yeah.

Presenter28:02

But by destiny again, in last De December, I made my debut in in the opera after five years that I didn't sing opera, and this was in New York singing Elisilda More. I stopped smoking.

Presenter28:14

For one month

Presenter28:16

And uh actually I sang the performance. And I was very happy. It is a sign of youth, a sign of health to be able to sing an opera like it is a more because it takes a lot of breath. You still stop smoking, you smoke. I stopped smoking with you.

Giuseppe Di Stefano28:28

I stopped smoking also.

Presenter28:32

So uh the word spread around in Italy that I was not smoking. So they they engaged me immediately in Palermo. I went down. I I don't laugh. They even invited me in Glasgow in uh in January. They telephoned me in Milano.

Presenter28:47

to join them in a b benefit council for the earthquake in Italy. I'm going now to Palm Spring, which I love, the desert, you know, the heat. I need this to clean up.

Presenter28:58

Really, for for good, my windpipe from smoking is it. And I come back and brom, I would sing.

Presenter29:05

Everything. Good. We've got two more records to choose. What's number seven? I will play the singers I love most in uh

Presenter29:13

In pop music. Yeah.

Presenter29:15

The first one is Barbara Streisen.

Presenter29:17

And since I love people,

Presenter29:19

you know already what kind of song you're going to listen.

Speaker 429:27

Lovers.

Speaker 429:31

Are very special people.

Speaker 429:37

Yeah.

Giuseppe Di Stefano29:38

And the luckiest people in the world.

Presenter29:47

Barbara Streisand and People.

Presenter29:50

You're on this island. Could you look after yourself?

Presenter29:54

Are you good with your hands? Could you build somewhere to live? This would be tough, but uh.

Presenter29:59

I'll do my best. You're not very good about the house. No. No. But I'm good on.

Presenter30:04

I'm doing my washing, you see. So I hope I can bring my my soap, maybe English soap, and do my washing. All right, you're going to be clean. Are you going to be well fed?

Giuseppe Di Stefano30:08

Jim Bangwe

Presenter30:16

Have you ever done any fishing? No, I cannot fish. Do you know anything about small boats?

Presenter30:21

Well, I can build a I don't know, maybe a raft, something you can build a raft. Well, anybody can do if he has he wants to get rid of an island. That's what you think. Right. You built a raft. Would you try to escape on it?

Giuseppe Di Stefano30:24

You can

Giuseppe Di Stefano30:28

What do you think?

Giuseppe Di Stefano30:30

Right.

Presenter30:34

I think I uh as al although I l I love uh

Presenter30:38

Silence. But I love people, you see. Yes. And I mean only women mean men, women, everybody. So you would have a shot. You would attempt an escape. If I am alone, yes, of course. Right. What's your last record?

Presenter30:50

Well

Presenter30:51

The other singer that I love so much, the Nutkin Call, in a in a song that is called This Is All I Ask.

Giuseppe Di Stefano30:59

Beautiful girl.

Giuseppe Di Stefano31:04

Walk a little slower when you walk by me.

Giuseppe Di Stefano31:12

Lingering sunset

Giuseppe Di Stefano31:16

Stay a little longer with the loans

Presenter31:22

See

Presenter31:22

Matt King Cole, this is all I ask. If you could take only one disk of the eight you've chosen, which would it be?

Presenter31:30

As I said before.

Presenter31:32

From my dressing room the most beautiful moment when Carlos was singing.

Presenter31:36

The

Presenter31:38

So that will be.

Presenter31:42

It's part of my life then. And the the composer, Bellini, my favorite composer Sicilian. Sicilian Catania from Catania like me. So I will that will be quila voce sua so ave.

Giuseppe Di Stefano31:51

Right.

Presenter31:55

and one luxury to take to the island.

Presenter31:58

Well, I will take that uh damn roulette, you know, that you know roulette roulette, yes, that drives me crazy, the little ball.

Presenter32:05

When I when I gamble, that's a duel. You're fond of gambling, aren't you? Not gambling.

Presenter32:11

I hate gambling. I love roulette.

Presenter32:14

Now it's to enter in this world of uh craziness, of uh disorder, because she sh she doesn't obey any rule, this little boy.

Presenter32:24

If you if you enter this war and you find out that uh two hours before twenty five came and after came thirty three and two hours after twenty five comes and thirty three comes again. That happened many times.

Presenter32:40

So that means that in such a disorder, that's an order. And this excites me. Right. Now you're allowed to have one book on the island. You already have the Bible and Shakespeare. Well, since I didn't read it yet, I would like to take with me this uh

Presenter32:55

Uh Maria, the book that Arianna Stasinopoulos wrote. See? I still didn't read it, so I will take this with me. All right, Maria by Arianna Stasinopoulos. Exactly.

Presenter33:05

And thank you, Giuseppe DiStefano, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs. Thank you. Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 333:17

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.