Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A star of musicals, straight theatre, and opera.
On the island
Eight records
Horn Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major, K. 417
Alan Civil with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Otto Klemperer
I think I'd need perhaps the Mozart horn cochetta to wake me up in the morning.
Ariadne auf Naxos: Zerbinetta's Aria
I think it's one of the most wonderful exhibitions of vocal technique that I've ever heard. Besides that, I think it would wake up all the birds on the island.
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
Record number three is just a very comforting, lovely record which I love very much, and that's the Brahms First Symphony.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau with Gerald Moore
Something that makes me quiet and happy and even under the greatest stress, and that is a song by Trubert.
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26
Igor Oistrakh with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by David Oistrakh
I think part of the Bruch Walen concerto.
Henry V: Saint Crispin's Day Speech
Oh, well, this is something that always... gives me a thrill, and I think in these sort of downbeat days we need something to... just make us feel that everything's worthwhile.
The Marriage of Figaro: Dove sono i bei momenti
Dovisiono by Mozart... from Nazi de Figero, sung by my favorite opera singer.
Missa Criolla: GloriaFavourite
Well, I think it's one of the most exciting things I've ever heard. Very stimulating and uplifting. I I just don't know why I like it so much. I can't explain it, but here it is.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:30Which side of the family does music come from?
My mother. But father was full of Viennese waltzes and German folk songs. Mother was going to be a pianist until she married my father, and then of course she being a good Edwardian, she gave it up to bring up two daughters and take care of her husband.
Presenter asks
4:30What was the opera that inspired you [to want to be an opera singer]?
Madam Butterfly, the warpings... I just decided that. They had thought I was going to be a painter. And my school teacher thought I was going to be a writer. so that I was torn completely when my family said, Well, you can study for serious music.
Presenter asks
7:30What was the result of that audition [at the Metropolitan Opera House]?
A great shock. Because I was terrified and very nervous, of course. and sat waiting for the verdict and I was told that I had a contract with the Metropolitan Opera House for three years.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
It would have to be an encyclopedia, so that I could learn something every day a very large encyclopedia.
The luxury
I would need very much paper and pencils or a hammock. I think paper and pencil.
Why did you leave opera quite suddenly?
Oh, because it'll take me years to be the kind of singer I wanted to be. I was very young, my voice wasn't developed at all, and I just saw years ahead, and I was much too ambitious for that. And David Bulasko, who was a great manager, producer in New York at that time, thought he could make a very good actress of me, so he lured me away.
Presenter asks
13:42What did you do instead of coming to London [to play Rosemarie]?
I left Rosemarie. I think it was more psychological illness than real tiredness of voice. I just couldn't bear it anymore. I'd played it for over a year. And I longed for the Rio Theatre... [Arthur Hammerstein] said, All right, you go, but there's going to be an injunction against you, and you won't be allowed to sing again in New York unless you sing for me, so I never sang in New York again.
Presenter asks
23:18Why did you decide to go and work in hospitals [during the war]?
Yes, I don't know what possessed me. All the theatre people were sort of sticking to their theatre and doing it for the war. My husband was sent away to Iceland to open an airfield and I just felt I wanted to be part of it the hard way. So for three years I went into emergency hospitals and learn to do all kind of therapy.
“I went to her first opera when I was about twelve. It was my undoing. I had about six notes in my voice, and Went to the opera and decided I wanted to be an opera singer, and that's the way it happened.”
“I went down to the ghetto and played the most beautiful play, I think the thing I'm almost proudest of ever doing, a thing called the Dybboch.”
“I felt like a student again, and that's always very healthy. I was very lonely. because they were all Shakespeareans to the I teeth, and I was quite new to new to that kind of thing. But I love teamwork in any case. I love belonging to a theatre.”