Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A mezzo-soprano known as the Queen of the UK's opera scene, celebrated for her trouser roles.
On the island
Eight records
Guest's reason: 'Stairway to Heaven is one of those songs that just grows from some very simple folky melody ... it gets deeper and deeper. ... And it's also beautiful.'
Lucy Crowe, Mark Padmore, The English Concert, Andrew Manze
Guest's reason: 'This duet lifts the heavy clouds. ... I feel that the sun is coming out and it's some of Handel's most beautiful music.'
Guest's reason: 'As a singer, even then, I knew I was listening to a master. So the choice is something I can bop to on my desert island.'
Guest's reason: 'Kind of Blue, which for me is up there with the best of Miles Davis, if not the best.'
Claire Watson, Royal Opera House Orchestra, Benjamin Britten
Guest's reason: 'The music for me is some of the best music in the opera.'
Das Wirtshaus (from Winterreise)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore
Guest's reason: 'There's something very, very peaceful in a rather frightening way about this song.'
Lebwohl (Wotan's Farewell) from Der Ring des NibelungenFavourite
Hans Hotter, Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Josef Keilberth
Guest's reason: 'I don't think I could survive without a jolly good drama full of extreme personalities, extreme emotions ... It would make me laugh, it would make me cross, it would make me happy.'
Part of the sixth movement (subtitled 'What Love Tells Me') from Symphony No. 3
Vienna Philharmonic, Claudio Abbado
Guest's reason: 'Claudio Abbado's lyrical, soft, gentle, persuasive conducting, this is really what love tells me.'
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:11What is your secret elixir for your voice, the potion that helps you if you feel something sneaking up on you?
Oh, it's just endless amounts of water … I've spoken to enough voice doctors who tell me, Oh, yes, have hot drinks, but nothing else. Don't get reliant upon something that you may not be able to have in some weird part of the world … So don't get reliant on that. Just do some meditation, some thinking, some deep breathing.
Presenter asks
5:24Tell me more about your description of what you do as 'psychological investigation using vocal colour'.
Well, I feel it's a singer's job to investigate the composer's response to a poem or a text or a lyric … what really interests me, is the symbiosis, is the electricity between why a composer chose that poem … it's actually about the composer's response to the words.
Presenter asks
19:05How did you make them [opera directors] listen [at auditions], when they cared about sword fighting rather than your musicianship?
I auditioned for English Touring Opera and sang an aria from Werther and I understood this music required tremendous pathos but not actual tears … and the director, Robert Shavara, said, 'I gave you the role because you were the only one that didn't cry.' … He said, 'everyone else was doing the fake tear stuff and you didn't, but I could hear it in your voice … that's much more interesting.'
The keepsakes
The book
The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman
Angela Carter
I think it would be The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr. Hoffman. Why? Her writing is some of the most beautiful, expressive, sumptuous, luxurious, Baroque fantasy writing, but she also manages to make us really think about personality, who we are. It's quite scary, some of her propositions, her ideas, and she just has this understanding of Baroque gothic horror, and I find her engaging. I never get tired of rereading her books.
The luxury
Grand piano, tuning kit, and manual
I would have a grand piano. To keep it in tune would be quite important because I've no idea how to tune a piano. Take a manual and a tuning kit.
Presenter asks
22:31How concerned are you about the future of opera?
The future of opera in Europe is in very good hands. The future of British opera singers I'm not so sure about … I'm very worried that without some kind of situation where British musicians can spend a significant amount of time in Europe establishing their careers … some of the greatest singers in the world are British. Where's that next generation going to come from if they can't get known?
Presenter asks
26:23Has surviving breast cancer changed you?
Totally. Fear of your own literal death, knowing you've got these chemicals in your system, is horrific. I did feel mortal fear … I had a terrible time with it … In many ways I'm totally different. I would say that I feel more strength … the support I had was astounding and I don't think one would get that if one didn't talk about it.
Presenter asks
31:24What will you miss most [on the desert island]?
My daughter, my husband, my family life, my dogs, my cats. I'm a family person. I really do appreciate having my gorgeous daughter around with me, Lily. I would miss her company more than anything.
“My strength is not to stand there and make a lot of noise. My strength is more psychological investigation using vocal colour.”
“When you walk into your dressing room and your costumes hanging up, I do actually feel a huge sigh of relief that for three hours I can just concentrate on what I was meant to do. And it really is very, very liberating, and that's how I know I'm in the right job.”
“I went into the deep freeze. I didn't feel happy, and there was a fair amount of bullying going on … it was quite good, I suppose, lesson for life to learn to be tough in boarding school. So you can get on there, you can get on anywhere, I reckon.”
“I have made a promise to my daughter, who's now 18, that I would only do one foreign opera gig a year … because I didn't want my daughter to turn into somebody who missed their mum so much that it affected her later on in life.”
“Fear of your own literal death, knowing you've got these chemicals in your system, is horrific. I did feel mortal fear.”
“I think it [the Wagner] offers the most variety of huge emotional life experience. It would make me laugh, it would make me cross, it would make me happy, it would just engage and it would keep me interested and … there's a huge life force in this piece.”