Rita Hunter

As a youngster, what did you want to be?

I just wanted to go on the stage.

When you left school, did you go straight into the theatre?

Yes. I left school the August that I was fifteen. And I gave an audition a few weeks later to a Manchester producer, and I told him I was seventeen. 'Cause in those days, you know, fifteen was not accepted to do, you know, principal roles. And I said I was seventeen and I got the job of principal boy in his touring pantomime.

What was the first big part you played?

The first big part was Mosetta.

For several years you slogged away at Sadler's Wells playing leading parts without very much happening, but what was the breakthrough?

I think after my little girl was born I sang Leonora in Trovatore for a company called Basilica. And Andrew Porter gave me a most wonderful write-up for this. And he then was asked to do the translation for the New English Ring. And I think it was an amalgamation of Andrew Porter and Reggie Goodall, who'd heard me sing some Wagner. And they said, Would I do the Brunhilde? and it just … [happened] from the Valkyrie.