Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Opera singer and leading bass baritone who established his reputation at British national operas and Covent Garden, best known for his acclaimed portrayal of Po
On the island
Eight records
My first record is one that I find uh quite amazing. It's an Elvis Presley um. Well, a rendition, let's call it. It's an amazing situation where the performer is about to perform and something goes just a little bit off the plan.
I remember one particular day that I was feeling very sore at my stepmother. So I started um singing. Smile, though your heart is aching. My heart was aching. And I didn't know exactly what I what it would do. But I had been stirred by singing in the past, and this time I was using it as a definite attempt to just change my feeling about my experience.
In my preparation for this great journey, one thing that was recommended was an aria from Don Carlos, El La Jamaimamo. And I remember listening to Nikolai Gyarov singing this aria. And um it actually just blew my mind.
My next record is from a great great performer, a great lady, whom I actually met face to face at the jewel yard, Maria Carlis. She was running master classes there, and I was one of the the um participants and um she uh was very strong, very beautiful woman and um her artistry was is something that is still unmatched.
Cello Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV 1012: I. Prélude
I find these suites liberating. The sound that that comes from the the cello and the way that Bach has has set up the melody is It's something that is not held. It's something that is freeing.
I find this particularly interesting because. The way he sang it and when I heard it many years ago, I thought, what a challenge that is because it's very difficult to sing. And that is one of the things that I'd have to um equip myself to in order to perform in this world of opera.
Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467: II. AndanteFavourite
In my days in in New York, in the early days when I had to listen to a lot of classical music in order to train my ears to appreciate the style, one of the things I listened to um was um Mozart's uh s piano concerto in C major, and I remember even dancing to it.
Bob Thiele and George David Weiss
My last record is a very well special rendition. It's It's moved me to tears, um, the first time I Not real the first time I heard it, but I was actually looking out on a particular scene. It struck me that. There is always this choice between the horrible world for many of us and the wonderful world.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:34Why [was playing Porgy] painful?
I broke down crying one day in rehearsals. Because um the emotion was so great and it touches parts that um most other situations in your life don't allow you to touch.
Presenter asks
3:55How different was acting [in Shakespeare's Othello] as opposed to opera on the stage for you?
The acting is um pretty much the same about feeling, but the delivery um of the whole situation was Quite a shock. Having been sort of in the definite um guidelines of music where you have four beats or three beats to the bar and there is a conductor who's giving you the whatever tempo he decides that it should go out, uh you get to the situation with the play. And I remember actually the first read-through that um we had and Othello's first line was'tis better as it is. And I thought I could say it about fifty three different ways. Which one do I choose? Nobody's going to give me the cue. There's a long pause I could use before the line. How long do you wait? and so on and so forth. And suddenly I I felt a sort of imprisonment because what I dreamt as freedom Was actually a huge restriction. You make the choice, the total choice.
Presenter asks
9:54What was it in your family set up that brought about such unhappiness?
My longing was for my mother,'cause I didn't actually I spent my first, um, few years with my mother, but then I had to go to school. In Kingston, a choice made by my parents without consulting me, but who consults a child? ... my mother was still alive, my father hadn't married her, my father didn't marry either women, and this is one of the things that I lived with in my life that I was embarrassed by. Um, I'm not embarrassed by it any more because all of these things in my life is what has brought me to where I am now, whatever you want to look at it and call it.
The keepsakes
The book
The Power of Positive Thinking
Norman Vincent Peale
As a reminder in this desolate time that there is a possibility to turn … at next corner.
The luxury
Presenter asks
17:11Where did you find the courage to stay [in New York]?
The courage to stay came from I must go home, this is too much. And then But what will I say to my friends when I go home? Those who said, Oh, Willet, it's fantastic, you're going you're going to make it. Fantastic. Good luck, boy. But not them so much, but how could I face myself? And I thought I must. Try harder
Presenter asks
23:26Did you feel you were suddenly being rejected [from Jonathan Miller's Rigoletto] because of your colour?
No, not certainly it's not something new. ... It happens, you know, it it happens a lot in in in this life. Um there are situations where because of your colour um you're just looked at in a different way.
Presenter asks
29:18Did your father ever come and see you sing in public?
In opera, no, he never heard me and my mother never heard me either. Um my mother couldn't read and write and she um certainly wouldn't find it possible to sign a passport document to get the required papers. And I have to say that As a young boy, young man, I was also embarrassed. Um the fact that my my mother was Like this. [Illiterate.] ... But now I recognize that illiteracy is is just one of these things that can happen in this life. My mother was the most beautiful, wonderful, generous person that I've ever known.
“I haven't sort of lived my life focusing on on racism because it's very destructive.”
“I think in this world there is this wonderful fabric of colors. And um maybe it's easier for me to say so because I'm of a certain distinctive quality that makes me noticeable and um in a in a in a field of um White people I stick out.”
“My mother was the most beautiful, wonderful, generous person that I've ever known. She didn't find the need to say I love you. And I never told her I loved her. It was just there.”
“A life lived does not need regrets.”