Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Opera impresario and chairman of Glyndebourne, one of Europe's most distinguished opera houses, known for creativity and innovation.
On the island
Eight records
Zeffiretti lusinghieriFavourite
an ari which I think is more ravishingly sung than I would ever hope to hear anywhere else.
What Can You Give a Nudist for Her Birthday?
I think the whole I think the desert island desperately needs to be cheered up a bit.
À la faveur de cette nuit obscure
Juan Oncina, Sari Barabas, Cora Canne-Meyer
I think it's one of the most beautiful romantic pieces of music written by Rossini, and my selection of records has been chosen composer by composer.
It was extremely difficult to choose anything from Schubert, rather like the Mozart, without, as it were, excluding most of his output, which one would love to have taken on the Desert Island.
Orchestra and chorus of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, conducted by Riccardo Chailly
I actually in nineteen forty-seven performed ridiculous mute part as Banquo's son, the only time that I've ever trod the boards and I thought perhaps a little bit of Macbeth would be and what's more, it's a rather good rumpty-time piece of music which I would rather enjoy on the Desert Island.
Elisabeth Söderström, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras
Janacek is a composer who I regard as being perhaps the more or less the epitome of twentieth century composers.
Third movement of Symphony No. 1 in D major
Columbia Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bruno Walter
a piece of music which I'd rather like if I'm allowed any music at my funeral I'd rather like to have played at my funeral.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:32Did having an opera house in the back garden mark you out as a child? Did other people nudge and say, 'he's the one whose dad built that thing in the back garden'?
No, I don't think it made much difference as far as other people m my contemporaries were concerned at school and that type of thing. My oldest son went to a tea party locally and at the end of the tea party he said to his hostess, 'Thank you for a lovely time' and then he said, 'Could I perhaps just have a look at your opera house?' thinking it was kind of the norm that people automatically have an opera house attached to their their homes. It's the same as they have a garden shed.
Presenter asks
2:41He was a genuine eccentric, was he, your father?
He was ecc very eccentric indeed, I mean so much so that um when he went on his honeymoon with his much younger wife, uh they went to Salzburg. And she got struck down with acute appendicitis and was popped into hospital and was operated on immediately. And when she woke up she found my father in a bed next door to her. And when he came to, she said, 'What on earth what on earth are you doing here?' and to which he said, 'Well, it's a completely useless organ, and I'm on it on my honeymoon with nothing better to do, so I thought I'd h have mine out as well.' Nineteen thirty one. Rather risky thing to do.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
Charles Darwin
I think it would be ideal for a desert island. I mean, just simply get me back to nature. It might be given give me an understanding of what the hell my predicament was all about.
The luxury
The Archers recordings from the very start
I simply adore the archers. An endless supply of the archers early archers. And what I like is the archers going from start to finish.
Your father died when you were twenty eight, which meant that you had to take over. Was it easy for you to effect that?
I had to impose some kind of authority, which took a long time to achieve, because between my mother's death and my father's death, nineteen fifty three and nineteen sixty two, other people had got themselves wedged in to uh the organization and were running it. And they didn't want a twenty-eight-year-old. And they didn't want a twenty-seven, twenty-eight-year-old heaving its his weight around. And so it was a process of gradual attrition. Which kind of worked, I think.
Presenter asks
9:45Would you have the power to draw the line somewhere? Are there certain operas that you would not have on?
I don't dislike, but I don't terribly like. And I'm regarded as being very perverse in saying that I would not allow Vozsek. Bergsvotsek to B stage at Glindborn. I simply don't terribly like the work. I find it stuffs a message down your throat in a rather Brechtian way, which I find actually rather intolerable.
Presenter asks
17:42It is an invasion of your privacy. Have you and Lady Christie ever discussed moving somewhere else, finally giving in to the fact that the Opera House is not in your back garden?
Well, I suppose to begin with, when we took it over, we were slightly resentful, and thought that the place belongs to us, and we would like to impose our rules. But on the other hand, that quickly disappeared. And the more we live there, th the the more we accept the situation. I mean, I have no difficulty with it at all, and I think actually the same applies to my wife. She actually in a way, might have suffered more than I, because she wasn't brought up in it. No, there's no great problem on that on that score.
Presenter asks
28:36A succession requires an abdication. Are you of a mind to abdicate?
Well I think I really ought to try and climb down when I'm sixty five, which is after all only five, six years away. by which time Augustus will be thirty five, thirty six. I've got to be rather careful about climbing down too early and as it were putting at risk those who put up a large amount of support for the organisation, and also having in mind to the artistic welfare of the company in the long term. But in saying that, I don't want to lay too much emphasis on my ability to hold everything together in the longer term. The younger man's got to take over some time. It's better that he takes over when he's ready to take over rather when it's too late.
“I think it was a dotty idea, and he was regarded as rather eccentric to do it.”
“I don't dislike, but I don't terribly like. And I'm regarded as being very perverse in saying that I would not allow Vozsek. Bergsvotsek to B stage at Glindborn. I simply don't terribly like the work. I find it stuffs a message down your throat in a rather Brechtian way, which I find actually rather intolerable.”
“I'd hate it. I don't think I'd be much good at coping. I'm no good at d do it yourself. I don't much care for the sea. I don't mind looking at it, but I don't like being in it or on it.”
“My bugs. The Dogs.”
“I think it'll have to be The Origin of the Species Darwin. I think it would be ideal for a desert island. I mean, just simply get me back to nature. It might be given give me an understanding of what the hell my predicament was all about.”