Richard Fidler

Was he lonely?

So your role, I guess, then was a confidant or a friend as well as a provider of all those services.

It was an emotional role too.

What about you, Blue?

Were you aware of what was going on with Nureyev's health?

He didn't take it?

Why not?

This was the early 1990s when, you know, there was still so much stigma and fear around HIV and AIDS.

I mean, how familiar were you with what HIV and what AIDS meant?

Did he get too weak to keep dancing, to keep performing in the period you were with him?

Before he got to Vienna, tell me about his rehearsals in St.

Bart's.

What did that look like when he was learning to be a conductor?

I mean, were you able to laugh at that side to him?

I mean, was that part of what let you stay there?

After all this rehearsal, he went to Vienna for his first gig as a conductor.

Was he nervous?

And by the time it was performance night, how did it go?

One of the places the two of you spent time when he was taking a rest from conducting and other responsibilities was this little island in the Mediterranean.

Tell me about what Nureyev taught you on that island.