Jessye Norman

Speaker 30:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a download from the Desert Island Discs archive. This edition may be slightly different from what was actually broadcast, but it is the only version we have. It comes from the British Library's radio collection.

Speaker 30:15

The recording didn't contain the guests' eight music choices, so we've rebuilt the original show by using discs from the B B C Gramophone library. For Wright's reasons we've had to shorten the music.

Speaker 30:26

Full details can be found on the Castaways page on the Desert Island Disc's website.

Speaker 30:31

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty one.

Speaker 30:34

And the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:53

This week, our castaway is the singer, Jessie Norman. Miss Norman, could you endure loneliness?

Jessye Norman1:00

I think I could, if I had enough things with me, to sort of make it a bit more comfortable.

Presenter1:04

Well, you won't have a lot with you. You you will have eight records. Would they have got

Jessye Norman1:05

Have a lot with you.

Jessye Norman1:07

Well I've got eight records and then I'll have a luxury.

Presenter1:10

Yeah.

Jessye Norman1:11

And something else, I think. I'll have sort of good books with me. I could manage about

Presenter1:14

One dot

Jessye Norman1:16

Two and a half weeks, I suppose.

Presenter1:18

What would you be happiest to have got away from?

Jessye Norman1:22

The telephone I would be so happy to get away from the telephone.

Jessye Norman1:28

I tell you.

Presenter1:29

After a year or two I think you'd be very happy to have it back.

Jessye Norman1:32

Well, probably, but I think for about the first hundred years I would enjoy enormously the absence of a telephone.

Presenter1:41

Just eight records. Do you have a big collection? Do you pay records? It tells you.

Jessye Norman1:44

I have a lot of records, yes. I don't have anything like the vast collection that I suppose I would be expected to have, because there just isn't the time to sit down and listen to them. But I do enjoy playing records of all kinds.

Presenter1:56

What's the first one you've chosen?

Jessye Norman1:58

The first one I've chosen is the Altorhapsidi of Brahms.

Jessye Norman2:02

sung by Marian Anderson, and I've chosen this because it was one of the very first records that I can remember hearing of of classical music. And I still have my copy of this old scratchy seventy-eight. It's very, very dear to me because I aside from loving the music, I'm very, very fond of Marian Anderson.

Presenter3:13

The closing passage of the Brahms Alto Rhapsody, Marian Anderson, with the R C A Victor Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fritz Reiner and the Robert Shaw Chorale.

Presenter3:23

You're from the United States, Miss Norman. Whereabout?

Jessye Norman3:26

From Georgia, from Augusta.

Presenter3:27

Do you come from a big family?

Jessye Norman3:29

Oh yes, with five children. That's quite a big family these days.

Presenter3:32

Was there music in the family?

Jessye Norman3:34

Always, absolutely always. We were marched out, I think, as soon as we could walk on our own to piano lessons. Were you? And it was a great thrill because we all were competing to use the piano at that time. We all thought that practicing was great fun, you see. And it was a wonderful thing to have. What did your father do? My father was an insurance broker. He was musical too? Very musical in that he loved to sing. He wasn't trained professionally in music at all, but my mother and my father both enjoyed music enormously.

Presenter4:06

There's a note here that you went in for a church singing competition when you were only seven. How did you do?

Jessye Norman4:10

How did you do?

Presenter4:12

What went wrong?

Jessye Norman4:13

I forgot the text of my song.

Presenter4:17

I agree.

Jessye Norman4:18

Now there I was, singing along, and I think it was about the third verse, and I just forgot it. I mean, it wasn't a verse that I normally sang, and I'd learnt it sort of specially for the contest. And I just stood there, sort of, looking hopefully at my mother, who was practically near tears, I imagine.

Jessye Norman4:37

But I only came in third, but um well I didn't mind really, you know, it was great fun.

Presenter4:42

Was singing an early ambition, or did you have any other ambition as a youngster?

Jessye Norman4:46

As a youngster, I was very interested in in medicine and all kinds of other things. I didn't think of of music as a profession at all. It was something that I did as a hobby and it was what I enjoyed. And I never imagined having a career in music. It just didn't seem very realistic. What

Presenter5:03

Uh gave you the inclination towards medicine.

Jessye Norman5:05

I don't know. It might have been the fact that there were about I think in my neighbourhood there were about three nurses and I thought that the uniform looked rather marvelous. I mean you know and nowadays of course one can wear trousers as one's uniform and all kinds of things but then in the in the fifties I mean there was the incredible white hat and the starched white uniform and the white stockings and the white shoes and I thought it all looked so wonderful and pure and beautiful and I thought that I would be very interested in doing that.

Presenter5:33

Now, you were singing gospel songs in church and wherever. What was your introduction to operatic music?

Jessye Norman5:38

To operatic music was certainly via the radio, where I listened to the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts on uh Saturday afternoon. And this was certainly my earliest acquaintance, other than, I guess, one or two gramophone records, certainly with uh operatic music, yes.

Presenter5:55

Now you'll won a Milesik scholarship.

Jessye Norman5:57

Yes, well that happened

Jessye Norman5:59

Well, practically by accident. Speaking of Marian Anderson once more, I think I was about sixteen at the time and I decided that I wanted to go to the Marian Anderson competition in Philadelphia. And that's given every autumn. And it's for hopefully people who've been studying voice between the age of sixteen and thirty two, which is rather a a large span. Indeed. And I just made it as far as the age uh requirement was concerned and I had my three or four songs that I knew.

Presenter6:22

Uh

Jessye Norman6:29

And off we went to Philadelphia. And of course, I didn't come anywhere near winning the contest, but I did have very encouraging remarks from the people who were in charge of the contest. And on the way back to Georgia from Philadelphia,

Jessye Norman6:43

I was traveling with my music teacher from school at the time, Mrs. Sanders, and we stopped in Washington. I had relatives there, as had she. And I ended up at Howard University singing for the voice faculty and I think it was the vocal pedagogy class that was going on at the time. And as I simply had no inhibitions about standing up and singing anywhere, it might have been eight o'clock in the morning or eight o'clock at night. It was all the same to me in those days.

Presenter7:09

You are really just singing for fun.

Jessye Norman7:10

Absolutely singing for fun. And the head of the voice department at that time was Carolyn Grant, who later became my voice teacher. And it was she who recommended to the dean that I should be given a scholarship to come there. And that's how it happened.

Presenter7:23

Just by chance, just that lucky chance of getting off the train. What other music subjects did you take at college? You passed away.

Jessye Norman7:24

Just that lucky

Jessye Norman7:27

What

Jessye Norman7:30

My second subject was piano and uh music literature and music education. So I did a lot of of studying at school. I enjoyed it very much. I thought a bit about teaching music, particularly to young children.

Jessye Norman7:43

But after being at university and going to the conservatory for a little while and finding that I really preferred to be at university, I went to the University of Michigan.

Jessye Norman7:53

and um worked on a master's degree, and it seemed more possible then to to have a career in singing rather than some other part of music.

Presenter8:01

Yes.

Presenter8:02

Was it at Michigan that you studied with Pierre Bernard? Yes, it was.

Jessye Norman8:05

Pause, yes.

Presenter8:06

He taught you the French repertoire.

Jessye Norman8:08

Well, yes, and it was it was an amazing experience because I found out again, practically by accident, that he was in America and giving classes at the University of Michigan. And very luckily he accepted to take me, even though his uh quota of students, you know, for private lessons was, I think, probably filled sort of long ago, long before I arrived.

Jessye Norman8:28

and I was very lucky to have lessons with him, and he did introduce me to a very great deal of the French repertoire, but also the German repertoire.

Presenter8:37

You won a competition in Munich. Now that was a long way to go for a competition.

Jessye Norman8:41

It was a long way to go, wasn't it? By then I'd been in a number of competitions in the United States, national competitions, and I'd been very lucky in that I'd won the ones that I'd been in. And this was really again for a bit of experience. I didn't go to Munich with any idea of winning the competition. I was excited, of course, about going to Europe. You know, it just seemed the most marvelous thing. And I was given a scholarship by the Institute of International Education.

Jessye Norman9:10

which at that time was government funded, to go to Munich and to go to Geneva.

Jessye Norman9:14

And they said to me in New York, Now if you win anything at all in Munich, you're not to go on to Geneva. So I said, Well, that's we may as well make my hotel reservation in Geneva. But I was very lucky in Munich. I managed to win.

Presenter9:26

You won.

Jessye Norman9:27

Yes, that's amazing.

Presenter9:28

Great. Let's have your second record. What's that?

Jessye Norman9:30

My second record is going to be the C major cello suite of Bach, as played by Pierre Fournier.

Jessye Norman9:37

And that's very dear to me because I heard the Bach Cello suites played by Pierre Fournier the first time I ever was outside of the United States. I was already, I think, very nearly finished with university. And I was doing a small tour in what we call Central America. And I think by this time I had gotten to El Salvador.

Jessye Norman9:59

and there was this concert announced. I said, Well, I'm going to go along and see what this is about. And I was riveted to my seat. I really can't I'll never forget that evening.

Presenter11:09

The opening of the Bar C Major Cello Suite played by Pierre Fournier.

Presenter11:14

What was your first real professional engagement?

Jessye Norman11:18

My first real professional engagement.

Jessye Norman11:21

That means something for which I was paid.

Presenter11:23

Yeah.

Jessye Norman11:24

Oh dear That's very difficult.

Jessye Norman11:27

It's difficult to say, you know, because when I was a student at university

Jessye Norman11:32

I sang in a choir on Sundays and I was paid.

Presenter11:34

Mm-hmm.

Jessye Norman11:36

Use the word very loosely.

Presenter11:38

I said that.

Jessye Norman11:39

Yeah.

Presenter11:39

I think we'll find it down to what was your first professional engagement after you stopped being a student?

Jessye Norman11:44

After I stopped being a student.

Jessye Norman11:47

I guess that would have been a recital at the Phillips Gallery in Washington, DC. Yes, that sounds about right.

Presenter11:52

Yes, I

Presenter11:55

Well, then you went to Germany. Was that as a result of the Munich competition?

Jessye Norman11:59

Well, in some ways, I suppose that it might have been possible that Egon Zeefellner, who at that time was the head of the Opera House in Berlin, might have heard about me from my having been in that competition, but Ralph Corbett, who's a

Jessye Norman12:13

philanthropist in the United States had decided that rather than have the singers from the States to go around Europe auditioning and so on, he would invite the intendants from the opera houses to the United States.

Presenter12:24

Yeah, I

Jessye Norman12:24

And um we all, hundreds of us it seemed, sort of went out and sang our numbers as it were.

Presenter12:33

Techn

Jessye Norman12:34

for all of these sort of rather austere looking gentlemen, and it was mister Zeyfeldner who invited me to come and sing Elizabeth in Tammuzer at his opera house.

Presenter12:41

That was the Deutsche Ope in in West Berlin.

Jessye Norman12:42

In Berlin, in West Berlin, yes.

Presenter12:44

Did you speak any German when you went off?

Jessye Norman12:45

Yes, I studied German very, very hard before I I went, but I wasn't anywhere nearly

Jessye Norman12:53

as proficient in speaking it as I think I've become to be since then.

Presenter12:56

Now, Elizabeth and Tanhoiser, that's quite a role to tackle for a friend.

Jessye Norman13:00

Can you imagine? Can you imagine? My word. When I think about it, I must have been absolutely mad. But I enjoyed it. You know, it was a game, one of those things that I did because it felt right at the time. And if I had been a bit older, I probably would have worried about it for days, but I didn't. I didn't worry at all.

Presenter13:11

And it's

Speaker 413:12

Uh

Presenter13:18

What other roles did you sing in Berlin?

Jessye Norman13:20

In Berlin I did Figaro, I did Getti Dammung, Second Norn, and I did Aida and Pannhuizer and so on.

Presenter13:27

All the operas were in German, I presume.

Jessye Norman13:29

Oh, no, no. Oh, no, no, no. In Berlin, in Frankfurt, in Hamburg, and so on, in the larger houses in Germany nowadays, all of the operas, well, for the most part, take place in the original language.

Presenter13:30

Open it up.

Presenter13:39

You also made your Italian debut at at that time. What was that?

Jessye Norman13:43

Yes, um well my debut in Italy actually was with Riccardo Mutti in a performance of Deborah in Florence. But it was after that that we did La Fricana of Mayabia.

Presenter13:54

Ah yes.

Jessye Norman13:55

the following year, about seventy one I guess it must have been.

Presenter13:59

And you sang at La Scala, of course?

Jessye Norman14:00

Yes, it was the year after that that I went to Las Cala to sing Aida. It was a very funny thing that happened. I must tell you about that.

Jessye Norman14:08

It was the first time I'd been to Italy, yes, to sing this um Deborah. And I was living in Berlin at the time. And in order to get back to Berlin, I had to fly, I think, from Florence to Milan to Frankfurt to Berlin or something. And I had four or five hours to kill, as it were, in Milan. So I sort of had a look at sort of all of the tourist things. And I ended up, of course, at La Scala.

Jessye Norman14:31

It was the lunch break, but I went in anyway, and pretended that I didn't realize that everything was meant to be shut.

Jessye Norman14:37

And I was sort of wandering around in this beautiful house thinking, Isn't it lovely? Would it be nice to sing here sometime?

Jessye Norman14:43

And I ran into a very nice man who was the concierge, I think, and he said, What on earth are you doing here? I said, I'm not doing anything really.

Jessye Norman14:51

And so I said, I'm just having a look. And he couldn't have been nicer. And he said, well, why don't you go down on the stage? I'll let you stand backstage and you can have a really good look.

Jessye Norman14:59

and which, of course, I am told is not to be allowed at all. But anyway, we did that.

Jessye Norman15:03

And so I said, Well, I'm a singer And he said, Oh, sure

Jessye Norman15:06

And so then I said, Could I sing a few notes on stage? He said, Absolutely not. So of course I sang them anyway.

Jessye Norman15:12

And I promise you that when I got back to Munich that very day, I had a telegram waiting from America that said that Claudio Bardo was interested in auditioning me to sing Aida at La Scala.

Presenter15:26

Can you imagine?

Jessye Norman15:26

Can you imagine? I was thrilled.

Presenter15:28

That's a gorgeous coincident.

Jessye Norman15:29

Yeah.

Presenter15:30

Record number three.

Jessye Norman15:31

Record number three, we're going to hear a bit of Fidelio.

Presenter15:35

Yeah.

Jessye Norman15:35

And this is the Furdwangler recording with the Vienna Philharmonic, and we're going to hear the first act quartet.

Presenter16:36

The beginning of the first act quartet from Beethoven's Fidelio, we heard Marta Merdel and Gottlob Frick and Sena Jurinat, and if we'd stayed with it, we'd have heard Wolfgang Wintgassen. When did you first come to England?

Jessye Norman16:51

I think I have first come to England in'seventy one.

Jessye Norman16:55

I sang the first time at the last night of the proms, and I sang the two arias from the Damnation of Faust Belius with Arcel Collin conducting.

Presenter17:04

But that must have been a rather awe-inspiring introduction to the English musical scene.

Jessye Norman17:08

And

Jessye Norman17:08

Well, I thought that all of the audiences were like that. I couldn't imagine.

Presenter17:11

I couldn't imagine

Jessye Norman17:14

I thought this was incredible and I thought well all of England was just like that.

Presenter17:19

Everything else must have been a let done.

Jessye Norman17:21

Well, I should say that's why I keep going back to the promise receipt.

Presenter17:25

Yeah.

Presenter17:26

You sang at a a second last night, in the middle of the morning.

Jessye Norman17:28

Yes, I have, and we made a recording from that. It was lovely. It was great, great fun.

Presenter17:33

Uh recordings. I believe your first operatic role on disc was the Countess in the Marriage of Figura.

Jessye Norman17:39

That's right.

Presenter17:39

Now that's a a a mature role, but you're still in your

Jessye Norman17:42

Yeah.

Presenter17:43

Early twenties?

Jessye Norman17:43

Well, don't you? Yes, exactly. Well, I was asked to do it and I was game, as they say, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Presenter17:50

That was a recording conducted by Sir Colin Davis. You worked with him a great deal.

Jessye Norman17:53

Do you work?

Jessye Norman17:54

Oh yes, I have worked with him a great deal.

Presenter17:56

And he conducted for your cotton garden debut.

Jessye Norman17:58

Yes, he did. The Trojans, mm or Berlios, mhm, who I sank Cassandra that time.

Presenter18:03

Now what else have you recorded? A couple of Verdi operas?

Jessye Norman18:06

Yes, I've recorded El Casaro and Ungiora de Reño.

Presenter18:10

Too rarities.

Jessye Norman18:11

Two rarities, yes. I think was one of the reasons for doing it. I, um, thoroughly enjoyed that. I'd like to see these operas on stage sometime.

Presenter18:20

I've seen Niljorno.

Jessye Norman18:21

Have you?

Presenter18:22

Yes, of course.

Jessye Norman18:22

I think El Cosado would work wonderfully.

Presenter18:24

So do I.

Presenter18:27

Now you didn't sing any opera at all for five or six years u until recently in Hamburg. Was that a an a a kind of policy you had, or did it just happen?

Jessye Norman18:31

How about that?

Jessye Norman18:35

Well, it happened in that I decided to leave the opera house in Berlin. And you know that opera planning is done very much in advance. And it turned out that there I was with three or four years stretching before me and no operatic plans. And I found that I didn't mind it at all. And I used the time to work on a lot of song repertoire and repertoire for performances with orchestra and so on. And I ended up in enjoying it tremendously. And I was thrilled to get back to opera, as it were, with Ariadne last year. But I found that there was no void in my life or in my feelings about music or performance or anything, that I wasn't doing opera on stage. It's very odd.

Presenter19:17

You still haven't sung at the Met, of course. That that must be an ambition.

Jessye Norman19:19

Well, an ambition, and well, yes, it is an ambition. That's it wouldn't be fair to say that.

Presenter19:24

I was thinking of those Saturday afternoons that meant so much to you as a as a youngster.

Jessye Norman19:28

Well, yes, but because I'm I'm so familiar with what goes on in New York and at the Met and so on, I purposefully waited until I thought that there was something that I really wanted to sing and a kind of an occasion. I'm going to sing in eighty three.

Jessye Norman19:45

And it will be the opening night in this the one hundredth anniversary of the Met.

Presenter19:49

Oh wow.

Jessye Norman19:49

So that means a great deal to me, you see. They've been very nice. They have been asking me to sing there since nineteen seventy three or something.

Presenter19:57

Mm-hmm.

Jessye Norman19:57

And I'm very flattered that now they've asked me again and it's for something that I really want to do.

Presenter20:03

Of course. Going to be a very big night. What are you going to think?

Jessye Norman20:06

We're going to do the Trojans of Deliors.

Presenter20:09

In its entirety?

Jessye Norman20:09

In its entirety, and I was seeing Cassandra and Dido, not necessarily on the same evening. Great. Yes.

Presenter20:15

Record number four.

Jessye Norman20:17

Record number four. We're going to hear

Jessye Norman20:20

Martin Luther King's speech that's become known as the Dream Speech is a speech he made in Detroit in 1963.

Speaker 320:30

For rights reasons, we're unable to bring you this choice.

Presenter20:34

The late Martin Luther King recorded in 1963.

Presenter20:40

Miss Norman, what do you think is more important in your career, opera or the concert platform? I know that that's

Jessye Norman20:46

That's a very difficult question. I would hate to have to choose between the two.

Presenter20:51

What about contemporary music? How big a part does that play in your repertoire?

Jessye Norman20:51

One bar.

Jessye Norman20:54

Well, a bigger part than it has before. I've become acquainted through the efforts of wonderful people like uh Pierre Boulez with the music of Schoenberg and uh Berg.

Jessye Norman21:06

and messiah and so on. And I am becoming much more aware uh that I really like this music. And when it's good music, it doesn't really matter whether or not it was written at the time of Monteverde or at the time of George Crumb. If it's good, it's good.

Presenter21:24

Do learn quickly.

Jessye Norman21:25

Yes.

Jessye Norman21:26

Thank goodness.

Presenter21:27

Yeah.

Presenter21:29

Can you learn an aeroplane?

Jessye Norman21:31

Yes, yes. I do an awful lot of studying in aeroplanes. I had a very silly thing that happened to me once.

Jessye Norman21:36

I was working on a score and I was on a very crowded airplane. It was in the middle of the summer. And I was trying to get from Madrid, I suppose, to Philadelphia or somewhere like that. Very complicated.

Jessye Norman21:46

And it was just so crowded and there was a group of American women.

Jessye Norman21:50

That had obviously been on tour together. And there's always a kind of leader, you know, she tells everybody where to sit and what to eat and so on.

Presenter21:56

Eat and

Jessye Norman21:58

And she saw that I was working on music and she sort of passed me three or four times in her sort of looking after all of the little ladies with her.

Jessye Norman22:05

And at some point she said to me, Now, listen

Jessye Norman22:08

You're obviously working on some music there. Now, why don't you sing some of that out loud when we're having our dinner? Can you imagine?

Presenter22:15

That's enough.

Jessye Norman22:19

I mean, really, I didn't quite know what to say. In fact, I don't remember what I replied. Just as well, I suppose.

Presenter22:25

Well

Presenter22:27

Incidentally, are you a soprano or a mezzo?

Jessye Norman22:30

I'm a singer.

Presenter22:32

Right. That's a very good option.

Jessye Norman22:33

Very good.

Presenter22:34

I won't ask that question again.

Jessye Norman22:35

Yeah.

Presenter22:37

Now you like to sing classical music and of course you also like to sing spiritual.

Jessye Norman22:41

Yes, I enjoy singing spirituals.

Presenter22:43

How about jazz? Do you sing jazz?

Jessye Norman22:44

I don't sing jazz, but I enjoy it tremendously absolutely tremendously. I'm very sorry not to have jazz on my desert island.

Presenter22:51

Mm.

Jessye Norman22:51

But one has to choose.

Presenter22:54

Record number five.

Jessye Norman22:56

Record number five. We're going to hear something very interesting. I love the theatre, and I spend as much time going to the legitimate theatre as I can. And on one occasion at the Old Vic, they decided to do a kind of life history of Lord Byron, and it was called The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet.

Presenter23:13

Oh yes, I saw it. It was very interesting.

Jessye Norman23:14

Yes, very, very interesting thing. And the reason that I want to listen to Could Love Forever is that it was composed by a child of uh eleven years of age at the time. And this is real inspiration as far as I'm concerned. She's called Francesca Robertson, and she listened to her parents, Jane McCulloch and Toby Robertson, and probably Derek Jacobi and Don Fraser, discussing all about what was going to happen. And she was thinking about the poems that they were speaking about, and on her guitar she came across a tune.

Jessye Norman23:48

That was later used in the play.

Speaker 423:55

Love forever Run like a river

Speaker 424:03

And the times endeavour.

Speaker 424:07

We tried in vain

Speaker 424:11

What the pleasure with this could measure?

Presenter24:20

Could Love Forever from The Lunatic, The Lover and the Poet?

Presenter24:24

Composed by eleven-year-old Francesca Robertson and sung by Isla Blair and Derek Jacobi.

Presenter24:31

You will now live in London, Miss Connor? Yes.

Jessye Norman24:32

Yes, I do.

Presenter24:33

Is that because it's convenient for getting about, or

Jessye Norman24:36

Well, it is very convenient to get to America from here and to get to the continent of Europe.

Jessye Norman24:41

And I I love living here. There's so much music. I love going to concerts and going to other people's performances at the Opera House. It's wonderful.

Presenter24:50

How much of the year are you travelling?

Jessye Norman24:52

Most of the time. It feels like I'm travelling all the time. But I imagine I spend about nine months of the year on the road one way or another.

Presenter24:59

Yes. Can you get your engagements sorted out so that you can do them in batches and cut down flying time? Or is it?

Jessye Norman25:05

Well, I certainly intend to do more of that now because it's feasible now at this point I think, but um one has to do something because the the sheer fatigue of of travelling is is more than one I think needs to be bothered with. There's too much work involved in and doing this kind of job to have to worry about the battle fatigue of it all.

Presenter25:25

How often do you get to Georgia?

Jessye Norman25:27

Oh, why, at least twice a year. I like going back there. It's it's great fun.

Presenter25:31

And your family come over to Europe sometimes.

Jessye Norman25:33

Well, not to Europe. They haven't been yet. I haven't let them.

Presenter25:39

My

Jessye Norman25:39

My family occupy rather a lot of my time and I've told them that they can only come when I'm not working. Of course that's rather silly because they want to come when I am working and so on. But anyway, my mother's coming over later on in the year. But they come in various places when I'm performing in the United States.

Presenter25:55

Yeah.

Presenter25:56

Record number six we got to.

Jessye Norman25:58

Number six, we're going to go all the way to Tristan and Innozhalde.

Jessye Norman26:02

And this takes me back again because we spoke earlier about my listening to the Saturday broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, and this recording has been made by the Met.

Jessye Norman26:12

And it's a recording from nineteen forty one.

Presenter26:15

Taken off the air.

Jessye Norman26:16

taken off the air and now it's been made into um a disc.

Jessye Norman26:19

And we're going to hear the second act duet, and it's conducted by Erich Leinstorf, and we're going to hear Flagstad and Melchior.

Presenter27:29

Part of the second act duet from Wagner's Tristan in Isolde, Flagstaart and Melch Jor.

Presenter27:35

and the conductor, Erich Leinsdorff, and the date, february the eighth, nineteen forty one.

Presenter27:41

Let's go straight on to the seventh record. Watch that.

Jessye Norman27:44

The seventh record, we're going to hear Michelangeli playing Children's Corner Debussy.

Presenter27:49

Why do you choose this?

Jessye Norman27:51

Oh, because I do adore piano music, and particularly solo piano music. And W C I can't think of anything better, really. Absolutely wonderful.

Presenter28:50

Part of the Gollywogs Cake Walk from Debussy's Children's Corner, played by Michelangeli. Miss Norman, you were a Girl Scout, which is very useful training for a lady on a desert island. How much of it do you remember? Could you build a hut?

Speaker 428:59

Uh

Jessye Norman28:59

Which is

Jessye Norman29:06

Could I build a hut?

Presenter29:07

I was thinking of the knots that you could tie in.

Jessye Norman29:10

Well, I only got past the square knot. I think I finally got that down. But the rest of it I wasn't very good at it.

Presenter29:16

Is the square not good for building huts, for tying things together?

Jessye Norman29:18

It'll have to be if that's the only one I can

Presenter29:22

Ever done in a fishing?

Jessye Norman29:24

Yes, I have. I used to pretend that I enjoyed fishing very much, you see, because it was the thing that my brothers and my father did together.

Presenter29:25

I used

Jessye Norman29:32

And I thought there was something wonderfully exotic about popping up at three o'clock in the morning and getting dressed in sort of one's old clothing in Wellington's and so off and going out and sitting on a bank in the cold and in the rain.

Presenter29:46

Mm.

Jessye Norman29:47

After a while, I couldn't pretend anymore that I enjoyed it, but I knew about fishing.

Presenter29:47

After

Jessye Norman29:51

Yeah.

Presenter29:51

Right.

Jessye Norman29:51

So I could do it if I had.

Presenter29:53

You needn't get up at three o'clock on this island.

Jessye Norman29:55

Well goodness, I'm glad to hear that.

Presenter29:57

Would you try to escape?

Jessye Norman29:59

Would I try to escape? No, I don't think I would try to escape. I might try to invite somebody to come along.

Presenter30:07

How are you going to do that?

Jessye Norman30:09

Well

Presenter30:10

I would say

Jessye Norman30:10

I would send a message. Well, I don't know how I would write it down. It's all very complicated.

Presenter30:15

You'll have to sing good and loud from the the top of the highest point.

Jessye Norman30:18

Of the highest point. Well, my brothers promised me that wherever I would be in the world, I could be heard. So I think I could probably manage. Yes, I could just call out, couldn't I?

Presenter30:28

Write record number 8, your last record.

Jessye Norman30:30

Well, this brings me to Le Nazi di Figaro.

Jessye Norman30:34

with Sir Colin Davis conducting the B B C Symphony, and it's the only record that I've chosen in which I've taken part.

Jessye Norman30:40

And because I have such fond memories of this recording and the

Jessye Norman30:45

The whole atmosphere of the recording was so relaxed and so marvellous, I would hate to think of being on a desert island and not being able to listen to this particular record. So we're going to listen to the end of the second act finale.

Presenter31:57

The closing passage to the finale of Act Two of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, conducted by Colin Davis, and somewhere in the middle of all that glorious sound, with you as the Countess.

Jessye Norman32:08

Yeah.

Presenter32:08

Now if you could take only one disk out of the H you've played us, which would it be?

Jessye Norman32:13

Oh, I think I could choose very quickly. I would choose Tristan.

Presenter32:16

And you can take one luxury to the island.

Jessye Norman32:19

One luxury

Jessye Norman32:21

I can't imagine being anywhere.

Jessye Norman32:24

without lots and lots of huge green bottles of Perrier water.

Presenter32:30

They'll be there.

Presenter32:32

And you can send messages at the bottom.

Jessye Norman32:33

Yes, exactly Now, see, that's a wonderful thing to have.

Presenter32:34

Explain.

Presenter32:37

If you can get the caps back on again.

Jessye Norman32:38

Get the caps back on again, yes.

Presenter32:40

And one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare, which are already there.

Jessye Norman32:43

Apart from the Bible in Shakespeare, I would take the diaries of Virginia Woolf.

Presenter32:47

Right. And thank you, Jesse Norman, for letting us hear your Desert Island discs. Thank you. Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 333:02

You've been listening to a download from the Desert Islandists archive.

Speaker 333:06

For more downloads, please visit the Radio 4 website.