Dame Felicity Lott

He needed to make some money.

And he didn't do many operas, about six.

And I just happened to coincide on one that he did.

And I was good enough.

For him, which, I mean, I can't tell you.

He's a kind of legendary conductor.

Yes.

I'd met him.

I was seeing the Marshall Inn at Covent Garden, maybe the year before or two years before.

And he came round at the end of Act One and introduced himself and said, maybe we'll do this one day.

I mean, I couldn't believe it.

And he was... People were so scared of him because he was a big counsellor.

And not a counsellor, but he cancelled a lot.

There was always such amazing anticipation of him doing a performance.

And in Vienna, because he hadn't conducted anything in Vienna for quite a long time, I think, when we did it in 1994 after the Met.

I mean, Anne-Sophie and I were sitting on the bed waiting for the curtain to go up.

And there was this huge roar from the audience as he came onto the podium because nobody was ever quite sure that he'd actually be there.

But with us, he was fabulous, divine, loved him to pieces.

Yes.

I sang a sort of farewell recital at the Wigmore Hall where I did a wonderful programme that Graham Johnson devised.