Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Opera singer, bass, internationally famous for his portrayal of Wotan in Wagner's Ring Cycle.
On the island
Eight records
Wotan's Farewell (from Die Walküre)
John Tomlinson, Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim
It follows on from what we've just been saying, and it it's uh part of Wotan's farewell to his daughter Brunhilde.
Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 1043Favourite
David Oistrakh, Igor Oistrakh, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Franz Konwitschny
And so this this takes me back to the fifties.
His yoke is easy, and his burden is light (from Messiah)
The English Concert and Choir, Trevor Pinnock
The composers I've chosen I felt I couldn't live without. And I suppose this is my favourite chorus from the Messiah.
Riconosci in questo amplesso (Sextet from Le nozze di Figaro, Act III)
It's one of my favourite ensembles from Mozart's music, the sextette from The Marriage of Figaro.
Prelude to Act II (from Götterdämmerung)
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bernard Haitink
I choose this because uh it's going back again in time to nineteen sixty eight when I was at college in Manchester. I didn't have a grant in that first year. And so I went to the Scottish Opera Chorus... and it was my first encounter with Wagner's music.
Figlia! Mio padre! (Duet from Rigoletto, Act I)
Robert Merrill, Anna Moffo, RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti
Another composer that I I don't think I could live easily without is Giuseppe Verdi. And this is uh an excerpt from Rigoletto, Act One, Scene Two, and an excerpt I've always loved the father-daughter duet between Rigoletto and Gilda.
And I suppose for us in the post war generation, you know, pop music has been our sort of folk music.
Quintet (from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Act III)
Well, this is a sublime moment. Uh it's from Act Three of the Maistersinger.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:17How many hours are you on stage during the course of [singing the Ring Cycle]?
It varies from production to production, but uh possibly about six hours, I think. Two hours in Rheingold, two hours in Valkure, two hours in Siegfried, approximately.
Presenter asks
7:52Who suddenly suggested to you that you should do Wotan?
Well, I think it was it was a combination of uh mainly Daniel Baremboim, I think, wanted a new Voltan, he wanted a bass Voltan.
Presenter asks
8:12How did you feel in that moment when the call came [to play Wotan]?
I talked to Daniel on the telephone the first time and my first reaction was you should phone James Morris, who's a a very good American bass who sings Voltan... But Daniel persisted, he wanted to hear me uh do it and so I I I learned Act Three of Valkure for him and and we had a session together and uh it went on from there.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
A book of the flora and fauna of a tropical desert island
What I would like is a a book of the flora and fauna of a tropical desert island, so that I could spend all my time deeply involved in what was around me on the island.
The luxury
I thought first of a microscope or a telescope, but then I thought perhaps a box of lenses which has happened to end up on the beach, you know, from the shipwreck. And with this box of lenses, I could concoct my own microscope and my own telescope.
What sort of thing did you sing around the piano with your family in Oswaldtwistle?
I suppose lots of Handel in particular, the great oratorios, you know, Judas Maccabeus, Israel in Egypt, and of course Messiah... relatives would come round and perhaps a couple will play piano duets, my brother and my auntie, for instance. Uh my uncle was the conductor of the Accrington Mill Voice Choir, and he was an organist as well.
Presenter asks
16:16What suddenly happened to make you change course [from engineering to singing]?
It was really a a sort of obsession with the singing in my teenage years, and also I was very aware that my voice was was was faulty there were great gaps in the rain. I use the word obsession. I think it was almost an obsession to to get it right and to improve it so that I could really enjoy singing, because I was so aware of the failings.
Presenter asks
28:30What are the main differences between those two ends of the operatic performing spectrum [international houses versus regional companies]?
Well, I think there are huge differences really... let's say at the Coliseum, at its best one is talking about music drama, you know, in English, hopefully so people can understand, immediately. So it's it's really like an extension of straight theatre with the added dimension of music... conversely, there there's a a total difference presumably in the fees that you receive. Yes, I I receive a lot less. Let's say the difference between Opera North and Vienna may may be one is a third perha perhaps of the other, or a quarter or something, yes.
“if a member of the public could by a bit of magic put themselves into the shoes of a Voltan or a Brunhilde in the middle of Act Three, they would be amazed at the sweat and the tiredness and the the the the heat and the the intensive lights and the physical strain of being, you know, of perhaps being on your knees for twenty five minutes in a big narration or or or whatever it might be.”
“I ended up when I was fifteen or sixteen with this dark, sort of huge bass voice, which I really didn't know what to do with, which almost it was it was half embarrassment, but half a source of great pride, you know, because uh it was it was I suppose in a woman my identity.”
“I think of the voice really as as an instrument. It's part of me, of course. But you have to have respect for it, you have to train it, you have to exercise it, you have to take care of it. Not to an not to a neurotic degree uh but y y you you neglect it at your peril, because if you neglect it it it won't serve you adequately.”
“I suppose I feel like I'm a singing actor, basically.”