Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Opera singer with one of the most beautiful voices, known for opera, Lieder, and operetta.
On the island
Eight records
Begann meine Karriere außerhalb Wiens
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Nicolai Gedda
The waltz from Strazi's Wiener Bluet. I recognized your voice. Who was the tenor?
Nature, childhood camping and so on brings me to something which I really like to play into this Hansel and Gretel
Der RosenkavalierFavourite
Philharmonia Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan
It is the one record and the one opera I have been trying to live up to all my life
The keepsakes
The book
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:14Have you had any experience of desert islands?
Oh, indeed I have had a lot of experience. Yes. I had an emergency landing once from coming back from Australia in an island in the middle of the Pacific, and there was nothing but a coral reef, a hut, a landing way, a landing strip, and uh stranded ship.
Presenter asks
1:40Do you have much time to play records in ordinary life?
No, not really. You know, uh when we are making those records we listen to them so many times that w once they are finished we have no time ever to listen to them again and that's what I want to do when I'm on the desert island.
Presenter asks
5:38Did you hear a lot of music as a child? Were your parents musical?
Yes, very much so. You know, I started naturally with the piano like everybody else does when I was quite young. And I played the viola and I played the guitar, the organ, and the organ services and … I even played the Glockenspiel.
Presenter asks
I would have a French cookery book with me at all costs.
The luxury
some suntan oil, you know, because I once in my life hoped to have time to lie in the sun.
Where were you born?
I was born in the east of Germany, in a part which is now Polish, but I'm really German by birth until I became an Austrian citizen rather kind of honorary …
Presenter asks
7:11What was your very first professional engagement?
Oh, I played at a funeral church service and it was the viola I played then … twenty marks for it.
Presenter asks
12:12Now you can choose something else besides the cookery book. What would that be?
Well, it I'm afraid it will have to be some suntan oil, you know, because I once in my life hoped to have time to lie in the sun. That's what I eternally want. I'm looking for the sun all my life. … when you have to sing a performance in the evening or a concert, you cannot lie in the sun for three hours. You will be all dried up.
“I had an emergency landing once from coming back from Australia in an island in the middle of the Pacific, and there was nothing but a coral reef, a hut, a landing strip, and a stranded ship.”
“No, not really. You know, when we are making those records we listen to them so many times that once they are finished we have no time ever to listen to them again and that's what I want to do when I'm on the desert island.”
“I even played the Glockenspiel.”
“I played at a funeral church service and it was the viola I played then … twenty marks for it.”
“I would have a French cookery book with me at all costs. But you know, I nowadays I spend my life not reading French cookery books at all, but only books on dieting.”
“I had the great fortune in discussing it with Lotte Lehmann, and Lotte Lehmann, who you know has been the classic marshalin, has passed on to me quite a lot of knowledge about this and even has passed on to me something very dear to me now, a little Viennese bronze chimney sweep, which should bring me good luck for this role.”