Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actress.
On the island
Eight records
Così fan tutte, K. 588: Act I, Trio: "Soave sia il vento"Favourite
Gundula Janowitz, Brigitte Fassbender and Rolando Panerai, conducted by Karl Böhm
I decided that I couldn't really exist without Cosy Fantute. So here is my favourite moment, the trio, conducted again by Karl Bohm and sung by Janovitz, Fest Binder, etcetera.
Images, Series 1, L. 110: I. Reflets dans l'eau
Well, this I really couldn't resist taking to the Desert Island because its reflections in the water.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 64: Act I, "I know a bank where the wild thyme blows"
I Know a Bank Where on the Wild Thyme Grows, sung by Alfred Deller from Britain's Opera of a Midsummer Night's Dream.
Symphony No. 31 in D major, K. 297 ("Paris"): II. Andante
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Karl Böhm
if you have to choose one Mozart symphony, which do you choose? I chose the Paris Symphony, conducted again by Karl Bohr.
Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs), TrV 296: II. September
singing one of the last songs of Strauss because I love the human voice, I love woman's voice singing. Hers is the most perfect silver voice that one could imagine, and also her interpretation of the words, of the libretto of anything that she sang, was so brilliantly intuitive and intelligent and fascinating
La Gioconda: Act IV, "Suicidio!"
I chose it not obviously because the opera is so great, though this particular aria is very wonderful. But because She was the greatest actress I have ever seen.
I'd like to read the words of this record because then you'll see why it's perfect for a desert island. My room is shaped like a cage, the sun puts its arm through the window. But I who would like to smoke, to make smoke pictures, I light at the fire of day my cigarette. I do not want to work. I want to smoke. Lovely, lazy, beautiful. That's my vision of the desert island.
The keepsakes
The book
Marcel Proust
Yes, Proust because it's inexhaustible reading. One can find all of life, the whole of life cycle in it and pick it up at any point and be totally fascinated.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:07Was there any precedent in the family for the theatre?
My aunt, Mary Grew, was in the thirties quite a w w pretty well known actress. I didn't really see her at her career ended very young, because she was ill. But my mother was her closest sister in age. There were a lot of children, and was very involved in her career.
Presenter asks
3:36How did you feel about moving around and changing schools so much as a child?
Yes, I moved about a lot and I liked it. I still do. I'm a very restless person. The desert island might be a little confining for me. ... I wasn't academic in any way. ... I liked the feeling that I was finishing something and going on to something new. I've always liked that.
Presenter asks
4:04What do you remember about staying with your uncle in Florida [during the war]?
We were invited to Florida to stay with my father's brother and his sister-in-law. It didn't work out very well, to put it mildly. It's one thing to ask evacuees or refugees, I suppose, as they thought of us, to come, and another to have these actual people living in your house. We had nothing in common, and uh It was very difficult.
Presenter asks
16:59How did you find Mr. Chaplin? Was he intimidating?
He was only intimidating because of who he was, not what he was. Obviously you can't forget, and in all the years I knew him, I never forgot who he was and what he'd done. You can't. And then he would do something with his hands or a movement of his head, and of course you thought, Oh, my Lord, of course that's what he did in City Lights But as a man, the kindest, the most charming, the most helpful, the most courteous man you could meet
Presenter asks
27:00Are you going to bring your autobiography up to date with another volume?
No, I'm not. I finished it chronologically, so to speak, then, because my life up to then had been, I do think, very remarkable, and the story I had to tell, I believe, was Fascinating. After that I've done some terrific things and I've I've had some splendid experiences and I have a wonderful daughter, but my life was a woman's life, an actress's life. The first part of it was a really dramatic story, and so I chose to construct it in that way. But no, there's nothing more to tell.
“I'm a very restless person. The desert island might be a little confining for me.”
“To me [Chaplin] was the and is and always will be the greatest actor of the cinema. I could not believe that my name had even come into his life.”
“Such is the nature of this beautiful profession that I've chosen.”
“Life is is worthless without coffee in the morning.”