Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Fine dramatic soprano, celebrated for her operatic career.
On the island
Eight records
First and foremost I want to pay homage and my tribute to music which has been my life. And this lead really, the words are so beautiful do hold a kunst.
Ombra di nubeFavourite
I heard Muccio when I was went to the Scala in nineteen twenty four, a most gorgeous singer, a soprano I loved. And uh I think she sings this very movingly. She makes the words pregnant with meaning or and she really Oh, it's most touching for me.
O don fatale (from Don Carlos)
Now she was a singer with whom I sang so many Aidas, and actually she was the Amneris in the very last performance of Aida in nineteen thirty nine in the international season before the Second World War broke out.
Sixteen Soloists with the BBC Symphony Orchestra
Because, you know, I did many, many promenade concerts with Sir Henry. I did some of the Wagner and Beethoven nights, and Sir Henry was perfectly wonderful. And they gave him a marvellous gala performance in nineteen thirty eight.
Oh, I loved it I loved it and played and played it, and I'd like to hear it again.
I only wish I was singing to day to sing Turando with him.
Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E-flat major, K. 364: II. Andante
Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Suckerman played the viola, and the tone was quite out of this world. We were all transported. It was gorgeous. And I would love to play just a few bars of that.
Chorus and Orchestra of the Rome Opera House
I am always so thrilled when I hear that with the trumpets. And inspired Enormously inspired. I sang that work quite a lot, and I always felt it enormously. I love it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:33How well could you endure loneliness?
I've never had a tremendous amount of time to call my own, so perhaps I would welcome a little time in which I could reminisce and so on.
Presenter asks
4:10Were you a big family?
No, deh was just my brother and myself, but we always went to the grandparents, and the aunts and uncles came too. Of course that was before we moved to Bristol, and we moved to Bristol when I was ten years of age.
Presenter asks
4:26When did you start to learn music? Were you put to the piano as a child?
Yes, I studied piano. I used to get up about five or six in the morning and practice with the soft pedal, and I've been very grateful through the years that I did that, when I had to study scores very quickly and so on.
Presenter asks
4:47What was the first opera you heard?
The first opera was Ils Robertore [Il Trovatore] … and I knew from that moment on I wanted to sing in opera.
The keepsakes
The book
Dante Alighieri
Well, I began, when I lived in Milan, I began the Inferno of Dante. And I never really finished it. I'd like to have that book.
The luxury
Well, as a matter of fact, I've always wanted to be able to use castanets. So I think I'd like a pair of custanets. And if I could really use them well. I think I would perhaps come back and sing car when I'm reincarnated.
Presenter asks
14:48What was Toscanini like to work for? Was he frightening?
Well, as a matter of fact, I did not sing with Toscanini conducting. He attended the rehearsals, but I sang mostly with um Maestro Gui and Maestro Panicza.
Presenter asks
24:24When did you decide to leave the operatic stage?
Well, I'd sang the Torandoes in nineteen forty seven forty eight, I think and then in nineteen forty nine I was inv uh invited to go to the University of Oklahoma as a visiting professor of voice for nine months. … I thought I would like to go back to America, so I accepted. But you know that I was there ten years. I never really retired. It just went on like that.
“I used to get up about five or six in the morning and practice with the soft pedal, and I've been very grateful through the years that I did that, when I had to study scores very quickly and so on.”
“The first opera was Ils Robertore, and strangely enough, that was with the Royal Carl Rosa Opera Company, and I joined that Vere Company later. And when my father took me, and I knew from that moment on I wanted to sing in opera.”
“I think I'm very fortunate. Well, this was a concert to remember for all time.”