Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Soprano who was the youngest member of Royal Opera House, later a TV star and toast of Vienna, returning to the West End in Sondheim's Follies.
On the island
Eight records
that was the film that my mother took me to see when I was a very little girl, and I said I'm going to sing like that one day.
If My Songs Only Had Wings.
Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)Favourite
on my island I'm going to get rather lonely and depressed, so I'm going to choose an old coward singing Let's Do It.
Lippenschweigen from Lehaus the Merry Widow, where I sang in duet with Nigel Douglas.
I fell in love with the way he sings Comm Sigun Kum Gypsy, it's absolutely delightful.
A very sweet girl I met by doing an interview with her in Vienna.
Julia Mackenzie, she doesn't sing Broadway Baby in Follies, but I heard her singing it in Side by Side by Sondheim in the seventies, and I've always loved her recording of it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:08What made you return [to England] this last time?
Well, it was because my husband had died two years ago. And I was feeling very sad and in Vienna and afraid to come back to England … But when I had the phone call from my agent who said Cameron McIntosh is interested in having you for Heidi Schiller, In Follies … they persuaded me to fly over and I met them all and they seemed to be confident of the fact that that I could do it, so I I had a go. And I must say I don't regret one single minute.
Presenter asks
2:11What were the fears mainly [about returning to the stage]?
Well, no, no, no, no, no. It was the the question of would they still remember me? You know, I haven't sung on the English stage for years and many, many years … But uh on the first night I remember standing there and and just standing and when the applause started after one kiss I I just couldn't believe it, and of course I came off and burst straight into tears.
Presenter asks
8:28Was [Dame Maggie Teyte] the most single profound influence in your musical career?
Well, yes, she gave me the impetus to go on and She was in the audiences when I sang my first big parts at Covent Garden, my Paminas and Susannas. And uh yes, I think she really was a great influence.
The keepsakes
The book
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
Lewis Carroll
Because it's so surreal
The luxury
I have very low blood pressure, so I'm going to live a long time. I think I'll take a loofah to brush myself with
Presenter asks
10:28Was it the great showbiz story, the overnight success, 'A Star is Born', when you sang Pamina?
Well, in a way it mu it I wasn't actually born it wasn't a star was born with me, no. I did have a big success and I was very, very grateful and Maggie Tate said, Now you must be humble. You can't just sort of now say, Now I've made it because no, you don't do that in the opera business. You go on the next night and sing a small part.
Presenter asks
20:31Was there any jealousy on behalf of your colleagues [in Vienna] because here was this English girl in their Volksoper?
Oh yes. Yes … There must have been a certain amount of jealousy, yes, yes and I was having the most enormous success and maybe the fact that I was terribly lonely uh made me think of my work as such a dedication that I I was determined to be to be good, and I was. The audiences liked me and I had fabulous critics.
Presenter asks
24:19What was it like being a diplomat's wife, an ambassador's wife?
I always say if I'd wrote a book it would be called from one stage to another, but really because you it's It's a It's easy. It was easy for me, because I had had the training of What I had to learn was I had to learn French. that I didn't know before. And uh that was very good for me, and I spoke much more German … So uh and what I had to learn to do was to Be more inquisitive about people. Ask lots of questions. But I learnt it.
“I went to Rada, yes. And then of course I said I wanted to be an opera singer. And so my mother said, Well, you've got to learn to act and oh my goodness, am I pleased I went there? Because so many opera singers don't know how to move on the stage, but now, in the era we're now in, they're all like movie stars.”
“She'd say to me Music never lets you down, my dear girl music will never let you down.”
“The question is that I became so happy in my marriage that I didn't need to go on and Somebody once said to me, Oh, but you get your applause at home now. This was really very true.”