Fidelio

Rehearsing this again brings back Orange memories. This was the first time the Philharmonia chorus had sung opera in a staged production and the first time I sang opera. It was an amazing week and Liz came along as she was expecting Dennis. Simon Johnson made us sing in pairs as some of the men did not know it properly. The thought of not going on was too much to bear. Yao from Singapore carried me across stage in the prisoners chorus and my stage wife wore a fishnet shawl which I did my best not to get tangled in before my top Gs in the finale! At one stage we sang every verse of "On ilkely moor" and the camera ran out of of film during the filming day when we all wore red, white and blue. I have hilarious video of the soldiers rehearsing their marching and we all saw the film 10 years after the performance. That was sad as Glyn Samuel and others had died. Zubin Mehta conducted the Israel philharmonic whose celli were left in the Marseilles sun. Gundula Janowitz and Jon Vickers were fantastic. The coach had a small crash and Jean reassured Liz and I that Liz was OK! It was certainly memorable. Paul Jennings wrote afterwards that we could never sing Beethoven 9 in the same way again - all was changed and he was so right! It was the most wonderful performance of my life - I will never forget the feeling coming off stage at the end. The soldiers from the French foreign legion got a bit rough with the prisoners and Ron said "He hit me -I definitely saw stars!" Those were the days!