Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An opera and oratorio soprano who won the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Prize and sang with Sir Malcolm Sargent at the Royal Albert Hall.
On the island
Eight records
GUEST: What part of the country do you come from? PRESENTER: My parents both sing, and my mother was a professional singer. GUEST: So the house was always full of music. PRESENTER: Always full of music. I knew nothing else from being in my cradle.
PRESENTER: about five years after that I auditioned for [Sir Malcolm Sargent] for the Brahms Requiem, for the concert at the Royal Albert Hall, and he gave me the performance, and I was so excited.
PRESENTER: my very first [opera] was I was in the chorus of William Tell, and I thought, 'Well, this is absolutely marvellous' and it really started my love of opera.
PRESENTER: I loved Constanza in Entführung… the Serail, yes, which is probably better known in England as Serail.
PRESENTER: And also Susannah in Figaro.
PRESENTER: In at the beginning of '67 in Arabella as the Fiakermilli.
PRESENTER: we're in the middle of recording The Merry Widow. Von Karajan is doing it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:15When did you decide you wanted to be a professional singer?
Well, I'd be about sixteen, seventeen, I suppose, that I thought I'd like to sing and I remember so well a friend taking me to Leeds to hear Sir Malcolm Sargent. He was, I think, conducting the Philemonia. Oh, I was so excited, I never heard anything like this. And this friend of mine knew him through a cousin or through some relation, so we were able to meet Sir Malcolm afterwards and he invited us to go and have a meal with him. And I remember so well telling him and saying to him, 'Oh, Sir Malcolm, I'm going to sing with you one day. I'm going to be a singer.' And he said, 'Yes, of course you are, of course, I'm sure you are.' … it was about five years after that that I auditioned for him for the Brahms Requiem, for the concert at the Royal Albert Hall, and he gave me the performance, and I was so excited.
Presenter asks
2:41At college, where did your ambitions lie: oratorio, concert platform, opera?
I think certainly of the concert platform and oratorio. Well, I was brought up with oratorio, so I think that was my first love. But it was the principal of the Royal Manchester College, Frederick Cox, who gave me my love of opera, because he used to put on these marvellous operas every year with the college, with students. And my very first one was I was in the chorus of William Tell, and I thought, 'Well, this is absolutely marvellous' and it really started my love of opera.
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
Presenter asks
When you won the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Prize, what doors did that open?
Well, mainly, I think, with most of the world, a lot of the big choral societies and London societies, which was always a wonderful thing for us to come to London. And I came then to live in London. After I had this first engagement with Sargent, he told me I should come and live in London. And I did, and I auditioned shortly afterwards for Sadler's Wells, and they started me on a three-year contract. My first role was Gilda in Rigoletto.
Presenter asks
4:21When you left Sadler's Wells, you joined Joan Sutherland's tour of Australia? How did that come about?
Well, then I left to go to do this tour with Joan Sutherland of Australia. … after she became a star. She was a natural star. It was terribly exciting. The whole thing.
Presenter asks
4:41Where did your European travels take you first?
Well, Brussels I did my first Messiah abroad. But, possibly with Acis and Galatea, we took it to Drottningholm in Sweden. … It's superb. It really is with the old-fashioned [scenery] and absolutely perfect for that, of course, too, for Acis. And then we took that on to Versailles outside Paris in the eighteenth century theatre there, which also was the perfect setting. And from that then of course came Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg and so on.
Presenter asks
7:22How does all this travelling fit in with raising a family? You have a young son.
I'm very fortunate in the fact that I've got my parents living with me, and I don't worry quite so much now as I did, because I know I can go away and leave him with in wonderful hands.
“I knew nothing else from being in my cradle.”
“I remember so well telling him and saying to him, 'Oh, Sir Malcolm, I'm going to sing with you one day. I'm going to be a singer.' And he said, 'Yes, of course you are, of course, I'm sure you are.'”
“My very first opera was I was in the chorus of William Tell, and I thought, 'Well, this is absolutely marvellous' and it really started my love of opera.”
“I don't particularly care for watching myself, but it was fun making it.”
“I'm very fortunate in the fact that I've got my parents living with me, and I don't worry quite so much now as I did, because I know I can go away and leave him with in wonderful hands.”