Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A beloved soprano in the British Commonwealth, best known for her portrayal of Madam Butterfly.
On the island
Eight records
I want to recapture something that happened.
Piano Concerto No. 5 in F major, Op. 103 'Egyptian': III. Molto allegroFavourite
This I'm taking for a very special reason because it bubbles along. It's just full of life and of course this is full of notes.
I should like to think that I might find a well somewhere on that island
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 'Pastoral': V. Allegretto
Concertgebouw Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch
I've obviously been in the storm because I've been shipwrecked. And now I just want to sit and think, watch the horizon. And this lovely, lovely ending to the great symphony will just put me at peace with the world.
I would want not to listen to myself at all, but for the memories that it would bring back of my entire career.
Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D major, Op. 39
London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Malcolm Sargent
I would automatically sing the word land of hope and glory and march up and down the beach.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:39What would you be happiest to have got away from?
Noise of traffic. Yes, I'm afraid I do love being by the sea and away from what I call the rush and the bustle of modern life. the aeroplanes and all the things that were connected with my travelling days.
Presenter asks
1:12How did you set about choosing the eight records? Are you choosing nostalgically, looking back, or music to cheer you up?
Yes, you have really covered about all that I have been thinking of while making this choice. Uh nostalgia comes into it and things that will keep me naughty, something that will make me a little pensive.
Presenter asks
6:48Were your parents musical?
No, I can't really say. So mother told me that she had a lovely voice and she loved singing, I know that. And she was most anxious for me to become a singer. She always said she came for that and wanted it to happen. Father, he did tell me, but I've never believed him. He told me that he was in St. Paul's Choir on one, I don't know, some occasion. But I had my grave doubts about this.
The keepsakes
Presenter asks
7:42What was the singing engagement that first brought you into the limelight?
I sang at an afternoon tea at which the government wife was attending. My dear wonderful fairy godmother Lady Gowrie. She heard me and spoke to everybody at dinners and functions so I heard later and said, look, I've heard a voice and this girl must be sent abroad. And of course, no one knew really of me. I'm in a little conservatorium, of course, and in a very small circle. I was known to be singing a little here and there. But I didn't have a big name at all, only in golf. And sport, everybody knew me as the golfer, but no one knew me at all as the singer, and I can really say that it was through Lady Gowrie that I had my first big grade.
Presenter asks
19:36How do you spend your time now?
I write a lot and I read a lot. And I of course doing quite a bit of sailing. and gulping every now and then. Which is wonderful for me and seeing a lot of my golfing friends of old. I have a very full life.
Presenter asks
26:17If you could take just one of the eight records you've played us, which would it be?
What an awkward question. Isn't it? Yes, well I would take, I think, the Sansans, the piano concerto number five, because I know that I'm going to need such a lot of cheering up while I'm there and this particular movement ripples along and it would just put me in the right mood for trying to fish and getting open those coconuts and the usual things.
“I suddenly turned round and there was my wig stuck through one of these false twigs of a cherry tree. And I rushed off stage and the producer was there and he stood in the wings and he said, God blind me, Hammond, can't you keep your ruddy roof on?”
“I really should have had a good break after the war. A holiday. I went out there and I was quite unprepared for the tremendous publicity.”
“it brings a lump to my throat. And after all, there I am, a wee little British subject on an island alone, and this would really give me a tonic.”