Lesley Garrett
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Lesley Garrett, CBE, is Britain’s most popular soprano. She has regularly appeared in opera and in concert as well as on television and CD, and now the beloved vocalist is starring in the West End as Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music at the London Palladium. Garrett has eleven solo CDs to her credit and many major television appearances, including Lesley Garrett…Tonight for the BBC and the series The Lesley Garrett Show. More recently, she joined ITV’s hit show Loose Women as a regular weekly guest. Her operatic career included early engagements at the Wexford Festival, Welsh National Opera, Opera North and Glyndebourne Festival Opera before joining English National Opera in 1984. During her time with ENO, Garrett starred in many productions and won critical acclaim for her portrayals of both comic and serious roles. She made her Royal Opera debut in their production of The Merry Widow in 1997. She returned to the Coliseum in the spring of 2001 for a revival of her acclaimed Rosina in Rossini’s Barber of Seville, having first performed the role there in 1998. She is now a member of the ENO's Board of Directors. Garrett was awarded a CBE in the 2002 New Year's Honours List for Services to Music. Quite a list of accolades, no? Now that you have asked this admired performer what it’s like to be part of a production that has already gained a dedicated following from the reality TV show How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, she has answered. Read on!
From Josie: What do you make of the casting process for Maria? Did you follow the TV programme?
Lesley responds: I did follow the television programme, particularly towards the end, and I voted for Connie. She seemed absolutely perfect for me and very much the person I wanted to work with. I was dubious about the process at first, as most people in my profession were. I wasn't convinced to begin with that a reality television programme would be the right way to "create" a West End Star. But having experienced a reality television competition myself, I knew that anyone that could survive, let alone flourish through this process would have more than enough stamina to survive a gruelling West End and so it has proved. At the end of the day, the public really did know who was the best person.
From Byron Kolln: You've recorded quite a lot of the songs from The Phantom of the Opera. Is the role of Carlotta one that you'd be interested to play onstage one day?
Lesley responds: I have no aspiration to play Carlotta, it is a fiendishly difficult part and stratospherically high. And, although I am “Climbing a Mountain” regularly here at the London Palladium, that is one peak too many.
Lesley Garrett in The Sound of Music
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From Dorothy: How do you get on with all of the children in the show?
Lesley responds: The children in The Sound of Music are among the most charming, polite, talented and funny I have ever met. As a mother myself, and as a Mother Abbess to a large convent of (much less well-behaved) nuns, I am so proud of The Sound of Music kids and feel privileged to work with such consummate fellow professionals.
From Jim Tomlinson: Do you have to control your voice for show songs or is the power the same for opera?
Lesley responds: If by "control" you mean hold back then the answer is a most definite no. I never hold back, I wouldn't know how to. In actual fact, I would describe “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” as an aria rather than a song, it takes every bit of my classical training to get it right.
From Steve Down: Hello Lesley. As I understand it, you appear in The Sound of Music at the beginning and the end, but not in the middle. What you will be doing during the gap in the middle? Update your autobiography, knit, sign photos, do press-ups?
Lesley responds: I think you've been misinformed, in actual fact I sing “Climb Ev'ry Mountain” to close Act I and then reprise it at the end of Act II. In addition, there are some extra scenes for the Mother Abbess that are not in the film. So all in all, I'm kept quite busy. However, in my gaps I am frantically trying to answer fan mail which, although is very welcome, comes in must faster then I can cope with.
From Katherine: What's your favourite song musical song ever?
Lesley responds: There are four, and I can't choose between them: “If I Loved You” and “You'll Never Walk Alone” from Carousel, “I Could've Danced All Night” from My Fair Lady and, of course, “Climb Ev’ry Mountain.” I suppose if I could only sing one it would be “If I Loved You.”
From Justin Cathey: How exactly did you come to find out that you were made for the theatre?
Lesley responds: I just knew. I'm a born performer—I had to be on stage. I used to walk the tightrope, I would've been perfectly happy doing that.
From Ian: What's the funniest thing that has happened to you during a performance?
Lesley responds: I was singing Susannah in The Marriage of Figaro for Opera North in the ‘80s. The Countess and I were performing the famous Letter Duet (which you might know from the film The Shawshank Redemption). I was sitting at a table with my head down, writing the letter when the chandelier above me was inadvertently lowered down by an unobservant assistant stage manager a scene too early. I was pinned to the deck mumbling into my parchment for a good 30 seconds before anyone noticed!
Lesley Garrett
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From Steve: With your well-known love of glamorous frocks on stage, how does it feel to be wearing a nun's outfit in a show? And is there any truth in the runmour that you tried to get your costume modified to glam it up a bit?
Lesley responds: There is absolutely no truth in the rumour that I tried to glam up my costume. Although at first I was dreading wearing one very plain black frock for six months, I have to say that now I love it.I find my Benedictine Nun's costume very dignified and authoritative—rather a new experience for me.
From Sarah: What do you make of the word 'diva'? It seems to be used quite frequently these days. Are you proud ot be a diva?
Lesley responds: I don't consider myself a diva for a minute. I think there are two types of diva, the old fashioned kind who are exemplary exponents of their art, enormously gifted, truly magnificent women. Icons of their time. And the more modern kind who are petulant, temperamental, tantrum-throwing children. I don't feel I fall in either category—yet!