Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Soprano renowned as a singer, actor, and storyteller, with concerts that have been instant sell-outs for thirty years.
On the island
Eight records
Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E-Flat Major, K. 364
Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Zubin Mehta
I love dueting, I love musicians playing together, and I love in this particular piece the wonderful build-up.
Choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor
I've always been part of church choirs or church quartets ... this piece of music that I've chosen isn't anything I've ever sung, but it's a glorious piece of English church music, I think.
I was given a recording of Tony Bennett when I was in my first year, and I don't think I'd ever heard any music quite like this ... suddenly this was a whole whole new door opening.
The Songmakers has been really important in my life because ... the song makers was to try and make song recitals more accessible
James Bowman, Ileana Cotrubaș, Glyndebourne Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Haitink
I would really love to have a memory of a memento of this production, which was a fabulous one by Peter Hall, which we did at Kleinbourne in nineteen eighty one, conducted by Bernard Heitink, who has been so important in my life really
Michel Sénéchal, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Marc Minkowski
I met this lovely Laurent Pelly producer who's sweet, sensitive, lovely guy, full of amazing ideas. And I'm supposed to be the most beautiful woman in the world, as Helen of Troy ... and I just had a ball.
Fantasia in F Minor for Piano Four-Hands, D. 940
I don't listen to a lot of music, but this brings me kind of comfort and it's it's spiritual in a way ... but it's got tremendous humanity and I just love it.
Capriccio (Moonlight Music / Prelude to the Final Scene)Favourite
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Horst Stein
I'd have to take Richard Strauss because he's been really a very important part of my professional life and that goes back to the Glenbourne Tour in 1976 where they finally let me in.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:13How on earth does someone who couldn't face teaching, because the element of performance in front of a class scared them so much, get in front of paying customers, the audience, and have the confidence to sing?
I suppose because I'm doing something I've learnt. Ideally I've learnt what I'm doing and … with standing up in front of a class, if I have to speak, I mean, even here now, it fills me with [terror] really … One of the important elements there is that people have paid to come and see you and therefore they're buying into the idea that this is somebody they like, which a class might not be doing.
Presenter asks
2:01Do you remember any of the nerves, the sensations on that particular night [of your debut in 1975]?
I think I jumped in at the English National Opera for Barbara Walker, bless her, who was ill. And so the whole day was spent in a complete rush of going through th staging and working with the conductor and trying to find a dress that fitted … I think it all went by so quickly and I was on stage really almost before I had a chance to think what was happening. So once I was on there I felt reasonably happy.
Presenter asks
3:23Do you listen to yourself ever, to your own performances?
The keepsakes
The book
Victor Hugo
My book is going to be something I haven't read since the night before finals. I'd like to take Victor Hugo's Les Miserable.
The luxury
Apart from the box of tissues that I'll need if I listen to all these things. I'd like lots of champagne and pistachio nuts. Really frivolous, please.
Not really, no. Because … one has an idea in one's head of how this glorious music should be and … you never quite manage it. Perfectionism is a devilish thing.
Presenter asks
6:42Do you think your mother had a very determined view of the sort of little girl she wanted to bring up?
Oh, very likely. I think so. Yes. … I was supposed to be improved and … I had seen lessons, piano lessons, violin lessons. I joined the all the … church choir and I mean it was great. It was lovely. Very directed, very strong. … very structured. … And I'm very grateful for all of that.
Presenter asks
14:23Do you find that you respond very well to the idea that if somebody who is respected in their field has faith in you, then you will deliver to them?
Well, it does amazing things for my confidence. If there's somebody that who is respected who thinks I'm okay, then maybe I am and maybe I can be. It's almost pathetic, isn't it? But it's it's still like that. I suppose one is a bit vulnerable in this business.
Presenter asks
23:45How do you manage to balance the commitments of a very rigorous schedule with having especially a young child when she was a baby?
It was sort of easier when she was a baby because she travelled everywhere. With me, of course, and um gradually we began to travel as a family circus with both my parents initially and then with just my mother later on.
“I actually I love silence now, more and more. And I listen to spoken voices more and more.”
“I'm never very very good at being curious at all the other things. Like I would read the set book but I wouldn't bother to read all the ones that the other ones he wrote.”
“I think I've probably got some sort of vulnerability that transmits. … trying to get through a performance without bursting into tears was … hugely difficult in lots of lots of operas I've been in. Pathetic really. I mean one shouldn't take it all so so personally. But I yeah, I do get involved with things.”
“I can't imagine life without it, really. I can't imag I don't know what I'd do. … I just love what I do. I mean, I have such fun. And here I say, I'm terrified all my life. But I have such fun.”