Hello, I'm Christi Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in 1977 and the presenter was Roy Plumley. This week, our castaways the singer Grace Bumbry. Miss Bumbry, what have you been doing on your present visit to London? I know you've been singing Richard Strauss' Salome at Cobham Garden, what else? Yes, but... When I first came here, we did the opera Don Carlos, where I sang the role of Princess Abel. There were six performances of that.

Fairly frequent visitor to London nowadays. Yes I am, and I'm enjoying it very much. Now, the first of your eight desert island discs, what should it be? Uh, the first... I believe would be Errol Garner, Teach Me Tonight, I'd like, from his concert by the sea. Why did you choose that? It's something really quite special for me because way back when I was a student at Boston... It was one of my very favorite songs. This is 1955. And it's something quite very special and very private. From me. the

Errol Garner, teach me tonight. Did you find it hard to choose just eight records to last what may be a long long time? Yes, that's really quite a chore because there's so many other things that one could choose. There's so many beautiful things, so many things that are impressive, but you have to stop somewhere. And as I love piano music and I love cello and I love also orchestral music, I didn't really know what to do, but I think... My main instrument would be the piano and the voice. So those are the two categories that I chose. How well could you adapt yourself to loneliness for a long time?

Oh, I could get along for a long time because I'm accustomed to being alone. I was the only daughter in the family. I have two brothers. Older and they were always busy doing boys things you know and I had to had to So I can get along very well on the island as long as I have my records and my books. What's your second record? The impromptu in G flat major, the Schubert impromptu done by Dino Lippert. Why? In 1960, I was engaged in Basel at the opera house there, and I happened to turn the radio on one afternoon, and I heard this pianist playing. And I thought, Who is that? It's absolutely fantastic. I'd never heard such a beautiful, beautiful piano before.

And at the end of the program they said that it was Dino Lipati and it was in commemoration for his his tenth year of death. Alright, so. I went immediately out that next day and I found up all the Lipati records I could find. And of the records that I have of Lipati's, this is my very favorite one.

Dinal Lopati playing the opening of the Schubert impromptu in G flat major. How do you come from? I'm born in St. Louis, Missouri, the Middle West. A musical family? Well, professionally not, but it's quite musical. My mother sang, my father sang, my father plays the piano and organ. Charles plays the trombone, Benjamin plays the drums, I play the drums and Benjamin sings... yes I think it's quite musical. There's a lot of noise around our house. What did you start with? The piano? I started with the piano, yes. Were you put to it or did you take it?

Put to it. I didn't mind, I mean later on I didn't mind, but at the very beginning I really was very hard put to take those studies but after four years I think I began to like it. When you get past the scales and learning how to make the chords and the harmonies and all that, then you start to play proper songs, you know, then it was fine. And you sang in the church choir. Yes I did, and I played in the German Bugelkorps. I did. And then you were in the Glee Club at high school? No no no no no I was not even admitted to the Glee Club. What? They turned me down but I was a member of the acapella choir a year later. Yes. Which was a step higher. Oh that's good. And you sang on the local radio station. How did that come about? Well I did an audition for a competition among all the high school students in St. Louis. I mean about 500 students, I think they were of all.

The schools in St. Louis. And I was chosen as the winner and of course I was to do two weeks of of radio work there and then I was sent off to New York to audition for the Godfrey show, the Arthur Godfrey show and I was the winner of the Arthur Godfrey show and then, well, I did some television work there and radio work there in New York and then things began to move on. Yes. And as a result of this Arthur Godfrey show, I received a scholarship to Boston University and then I went from Boston University to Northwestern University and then that's where layman. What did you sing on the other Godforshire? I did O Don Fatale from Don Carlos. Warhorse whenever I auditioned for anything I used to don't fatale and it always worked fine Let's have your third record what now?

My third record would be Casta Diva from Norma sung by my... Iacalas.

Maria Callas as Bellini's Norma. Now you mentioned that fabulous name, Lotte Lehmann. She was teaching at Northwestern University, wasn't she? Yes, she was. She gave, actually, a two-week masterclass there at Northwestern. And I was one of the students to audition for her classes, and she accepted me as one of the students. And then at the end of the two weeks, of course, she returned to California.

Because she was teaching at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. So finally I wrote her a letter to see if I could matriculate there in the summer and I was accepted as a student and I was given a scholarship there for the three years as a matter of fact. So I studied with Madame Lehman from '56 through '56. Both with her as well as with the regular academic courses as well. Yes. And she brought you... To London as her protégé when she was giving some master classes here? Yeah, yeah, that was in 1959, I think May or June. You were a mezzo at that time. Yeah, I suppose I was. She said I was. My voice teacher said I was a prano, but you know, Madame Lehman, I think, was far more powerful and I was in great awe of her.

So what she said at that time of course was the gospel truth. You caused quite a sensation when you were heard at those master classes at the Wegmore Hall. You follow them up by doing a recital of your own in the same hall. Yes I do. What was the next step? If I remember correctly... We went from London to Vienna and I studied the art of... Oratorio with Eric Werba and then from there we went to Bayreuth just to... To see the whole music scene there, the whole music atmosphere together, gather up some of that in Bayreuth and then to Salzburg and then when I was in Salzburg I took part in one of those master classes of Erich Werba and then took part in the contest they always have for the students there and I won.

And I had to sing a concert with the orchestra and then I was engaged to sing the Opera House in Basel as a result of that concert. You signed up I believe for two years so that you could really learn the repertoire. That's right I did. And then you were invited back to Bayreuth to sing. Yes, I was invited back to Bayreuth to sing in 1961. The role of Venus. And you know actually when I went there to Bayouroids in 1959 I... And didn't go there with the thought in mind of ever singing in Bayreuth. It just never dawned on me to sing in Bayreuth. And then a year later or so, what it was a year or two later, I was asked to come and audition for Villan-Bagner. And I did. Time I didn't really have anything German to sing. Can you just imagine? He going to buy right this temple and singing in an italian aria and that's what i did it

And for Dali again, you see my war horse. Yes. And they cast you as Venus in Tannhäuser. They cast me as Venus. Yeah. Shirley Bassey singing Feelings. I love the words to this song. And I like Shirley Bassey's interpretation because I find it very feminine and I like also the beat. Nothing more than feelings *music* Shirley Bassey. Now you still had to make a major debut in the United States. Yes. The very first one...

Of course, I say, was in 1958 at the Palace of the Legion of Honour. In San Francisco on the occasion of Madame Le Monde's 70th birthday. And... The second one was at the White House for John F. Kennedy in, I think it was dinner justice. And it was on the also the same day that we had a successful flight to the moon. Ah-hah. Well, that was quite a day for you. Yes, it was. But my professional operatic debut in the Metropolitan, when America was in 1965, and that was as a believe in Don Carlos. When did you decide that you were really a soprano? Whenever I decided it.

I decided to sing those things that fit my voice. At one time, my voice was lower. Spoke lower, or just sang lower, I don't know. But there came a point when I felt that this particular opera I wanted to sing, I studied it. Spit my voice and I sang it. Then I really think that people... Saw or heard something in my voice which I didn't hear. And this was already back in 1963 because in 1963 in Basel they already asked me to sing Lady Macbeth and for someone to have been... Engaged in opera house as a mezzo, I found that to be rather strange that they would ask me to sing Lady Macbeth, which I did. And then during that same period, the Paris opera wanted me to sing Salome. So I mean, they must have been...

Some reason, they can't all be stupid. And then I remember Maestro Boehm even said that I was not a mezzo. Well, everybody has their opinion. But I never really gave it any serious thought of expanding my repertoire until around about 1968 This needed some rethinking didn't it? Yes it did Did, and not just rethinking vocally, but also I find that as a... So you sing and your whole feeling, your whole being is one way. And as a soprano you're completely different types. I find as a metal you kind of, I don't know, kind of bossy and kind of half tough, you know. But as a soprano, you're rather vulnerable and kind of sweet. So you've dropped a lot of road. Yes I have.

All the metal rules except for Aboli and Amnéris. And I think for very special reasons. First of all because my operatic debut was with Amnéris. And of course, ably I find to be very special and always has been very special for me plus the fact that both of these roles I do not find to be really typical mezzo roles because I find the testatura is very high even though you have some very low moments and if you know how to sing you can get away with singing these two roles even as a soprano Record number five, what's that to be? I think I would like... Alexander Slobodjanić and Chopin... Scear-tso, Scear-tso number three in C sharp minor.

Alexander Slobodiannik, Chopin's Scherzo No. 3 in C# minor. What about new opera roles? What are you learning at the moment? What are you learning? I have yet to learn Afrikan for Covent Garden for next season. That's going to be exciting, looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to it very much and I know for my own personal reason, it's going to sound very strange. But you know, The opposite I sing. I always have to make my face and my body make up very light. Now...

Afrikaan, I don't have to do that. And in Aida, I don't have to do that. So when I sing Afrikaan in Aida, I am in my seventh heaven. - Yes, nice light night. Easy nights, easy nights. And what are the other roles? The other roles? The makeup roles. Is Turandot, there is Abigail from Nabucco, Elvira from... Ernani. So there's a lot of work for you. Are you a quick study? Yes I am. I think through my knowledge of the piano. As a singer, what sort of discipline do you impose on yourself? How much do you practice every day? Well I try to vocalize every day, certainly twice a week. Minutes except for the day after performance because I don't want to tax the voice too much because I feel

The voice has had enough work to do the night of a performance. So that next day I don't work. But then vocalizing comes every day that I don't have to sing. And then on days when I really have to learn music, then sometimes I have to study four, five, six hours, not vocally all the time. I might sit at the piano, or I might do memory work, or I might just learn things musically. On a day when you're singing at night, I believe you maintain more or less absolute silence. Yes, I do. Ideally, I would say, 36 hours before. For an opera like Salome, I like to have 36 hours of absolute quiet. And I don't talk on the telephone, I don't talk on the phone. To anybody. Everything that is to be said is written. Where is your home now? Well, my home is still in Switzerland, in Lugano. How much time can you spend there? Not very much, not very much.

But it one has to change their suitcases somewhere. Yeah Record number six. All right number six, I think would be Grande, grande, grande, by Mina. Well, Mina is an Italian pop singer And And I like the song very much because it's kind of sweet-sour. It tells a lot about the Italian male.

Mina singing Grande, grande, grande would you try to escape from this island? If you have snails... And tarantulas and then I would try to escape yes best I could. How practical are you? Could you look after yourself? Could you build a shelter? Cook something for yourself? Well, um... I don't-- I don't know if I don't have any hammers and nails and all that. No hammers and nails and all that. I imagine I managed somehow to get a little huddle up. But um... Ever done any fishing?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I would manage with the fish, I think. You've done that? Yeah, because I did some fishing once in the Bahamas. It was just a little string, no bait at all, and I caught fish. Of course, you know, the little book thing, but I didn't have anything on it. Oh, well done. You're a good tissue woman. But I caught it. So I think I'd manage, but how would I get my fire started, though? Well, how would you get your fire started? I don't know. I don't know. I think I'd take a grand picture on that, because I think I might starve. I think I just might starve before I got rescued. Because I'm sure I'd be getting rescued at some point. Of course, yes, we'd see to that. Let's have some more music. All right. I think I'd like to have Perry Como sing for me. It's impossible.

Possible. Why? Well, the words are absolutely depictive. I don't have to tell you anything else. *music* Oh how impossible... Pericomo and some Depictive Words. Now what's your last record? Oh, my last record? This Plurée Maisieur sung by Grace Bambry from the...

Opera Le Cide. This is one of your most recent recordings. Yes, this is a recording we did last year at the Carnegie Hall in live performance. And I think it's really quite a beautiful recording.

Plurée Maisieur from Marsenets-le-Sid, and now I'm going to ask you to choose just one record out of the eight you've chosen. I think it would be Dinu Li-Pati, the Schubert impromptu. And one luxury to take to the island with you. Oh, I'd have to have a bottle of perfume. Right. At least one bottle. At least one bottle. We'll give you a case or however they pack perfume. All right. And one book, apart from the Bible and Shakespeare, and we don't allow any of that. Encyclopedias either? I would like the letters of Giuseppe Verdi. There's an awful lot of information in that book that could

keep my mind occupied for a long length of time. Right. The letters of Giuseppe Verdi, chosen, translated and edited by Charles Osborne. And thank you, Grace Bumbry, for letting us hear your desert island discs. Oh, it's my pleasure. Thank you so much. Goodbye, everyone. to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/radio4.