0:00:02 > 0:00:06She's been dead so long, and yet is so well remembered.
0:00:06 > 0:00:09Yes, it's extraordinary, but she was unique.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13I remember just staggering up the stairs into the daylight
0:00:13 > 0:00:17and thinking, "My God, I've never heard anything like that
0:00:17 > 0:00:20"before in my life."
0:00:31 > 0:00:36She was not spoilt by success. My gosh, she was a star.
0:00:36 > 0:00:44I don't think I've ever heard anything quite so human and basic as the sound she produced.
0:00:44 > 0:00:50Terribly moving and it reaches right in there which was her great gift, of course.
0:00:56 > 0:01:01When Kathleen Ferrier died at the age of 41 in October 1953,
0:01:01 > 0:01:05she was as famous as the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth.
0:01:06 > 0:01:13In just 12 short years, she had climbed from nowhere to sing at the the world's greatest concert halls,
0:01:13 > 0:01:17working with the world's finest conductors and musicians.
0:01:18 > 0:01:25She combined a glorious voice with a remarkable ability to communicate with an audience.
0:01:25 > 0:01:29And yet, she somehow always remained "Our Kath" -
0:01:29 > 0:01:33a northern girl with a heart as big as a boot.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49'Microphone, here I come!'
0:01:49 > 0:01:57"If anyone had told me when I was 20, that at 32 I should be dashing about singing at concerts,
0:01:57 > 0:01:59"I should have laughed my head off.
0:01:59 > 0:02:05"I should have said that no-one could make a career in music without going to the Royal Academy.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09"And anyway, that it was much too risky a way of earning a living.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13"Now here I am. Fantastico, isn't it?"
0:02:17 > 0:02:21PEOPLE LAUGH
0:02:25 > 0:02:30Kathleen. Kath. Clever Kaff. Not so clever Kaff.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34Clever question mark Kaff. Katie. Our Kath.
0:02:34 > 0:02:41Kathleen Ferrier was born in Higher Walton, just outside Blackburn in 1912.
0:02:41 > 0:02:47# Blow the wind Southerly southerly southerly
0:02:47 > 0:02:55# Blow the wind South o'er the bonnie blue sea
0:02:55 > 0:03:02# Blow the wind Southerly southerly southerly
0:03:02 > 0:03:06# Blow bonnie breeze
0:03:06 > 0:03:11# My lover to me. #
0:03:11 > 0:03:15It seems trite to say this, but the most...
0:03:15 > 0:03:20often played...extract...
0:03:20 > 0:03:24is the unaccompanied folk song Blow The Wind Southerly.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27And to me it...
0:03:28 > 0:03:32..encapsulates her entirely.
0:03:32 > 0:03:34# Where might be it
0:03:34 > 0:03:39# The barque that is bearing
0:03:39 > 0:03:44# My lover to me. #
0:03:44 > 0:03:49You're getting the glory of this human sound,
0:03:49 > 0:03:57her genius with words, and the way she makes them are Lancastrian - that roundness of vowel.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01The way she sounds the words is her.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05It just describes HER so exactly -
0:04:05 > 0:04:09the simplicity of the person and this directness.
0:04:09 > 0:04:15There is nothing like the directness of unaccompanied singing to reach the heart.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19Kathleen's father was a headmaster.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23Her mother, a frustrated housewife with ambitions for her children.
0:04:23 > 0:04:27She had an older brother, George, and a sister, Winifred.
0:04:27 > 0:04:33From the time that she could toddle, she really became the humorist of the family.
0:04:33 > 0:04:39I think Kathleen inherited the best characteristics of both her parents.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43Her father's happy smiling enjoyment of life.
0:04:43 > 0:04:50And her mother's temperament, which could reach the heights and the depths.
0:04:50 > 0:04:57# ..Safely to me. #
0:05:10 > 0:05:14Kathleen's first love was the piano.
0:05:14 > 0:05:21She soon became a familiar sight in Montague street swinging her music case as she went to her lesson.
0:05:22 > 0:05:30Considering she had a light-hearted attitude to life, she became a different person when she played.
0:05:30 > 0:05:37She went in for examinations and always passed at the first attempt.
0:05:37 > 0:05:44She entered for a lot of the competitive festivals in Blackpool and Liverpool,
0:05:44 > 0:05:47and the various towns in the north of England.
0:05:50 > 0:05:57At this point, her singing was confined to the bathroom - much to the annoyance of her family.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04I said to them, "Weren't you amazed? Didn't you all stand outside
0:06:04 > 0:06:08"listening to this amazing voice?"
0:06:08 > 0:06:14And Win said, "No, my father used to get annoyed and beat the door and say. 'Kath get out. Stop it!
0:06:14 > 0:06:20" 'We're all waiting to get in.' " It sounded to me like a very loving, warm family.
0:06:20 > 0:06:25"I think of Blackburn and my school days with deep pleasure,
0:06:25 > 0:06:29"and my great regret in that I had to leave so early.
0:06:29 > 0:06:36"In my particular work, how grateful I should have been for fluent French, German and Italian."
0:06:37 > 0:06:42When Kathleen was a teenager, the Ferrier family fractured.
0:06:42 > 0:06:47Her brother George, too often in trouble, was sent to Canada.
0:06:47 > 0:06:53Her parents, worried about having to finance his return, took Kathleen out of school.
0:06:54 > 0:07:01At 14, she began to work at the telephone exchange at a salary of eight shillings a week.
0:07:01 > 0:07:08Two years later, she was promoted and moved to the chief engineer's office which meant regular hours,
0:07:08 > 0:07:12not shift work, leaving her evenings free for her music.
0:07:12 > 0:07:17Her solo piano playing was very, very good.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20As time went on and she accompanied more,
0:07:20 > 0:07:24I think her leanings were more to accompaniment.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27She was keen on the songs by then,
0:07:27 > 0:07:31and she'd sing them in various voices.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35I think singing then was more than a bit there.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38APPLAUSE
0:07:46 > 0:07:48And our first semifinalist, please.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56Your two minutes on the life of Kathleen Ferrier starting now.
0:07:56 > 0:08:02Kathleen sang for a while under her married name - what was it?
0:08:02 > 0:08:04- Mrs Wilson.- Correct.
0:08:09 > 0:08:14Kathleen was 21 when she met Albert Wilson, an assistant bank manager.
0:08:14 > 0:08:19They shared a love of dancing and after a few months became engaged.
0:08:19 > 0:08:25But as plans for the wedding went full steam ahead, Kathleen began to have her doubts.
0:08:25 > 0:08:32Later, she confessed to her sister she had felt trapped and could see no way of calling the wedding off.
0:08:32 > 0:08:39Winifred, for her part, always felt they were unsuited and that Bert took her sister for granted.
0:08:39 > 0:08:45During this period, Kathleen took part in her first singing competition in Blackpool.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49It was not a success, and soon after, she married Bert.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52In Winifred's words,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55Kathleen dreaded every moment of her...
0:08:55 > 0:09:00I think maybe every night of her honeymoon. Which is...
0:09:01 > 0:09:05Which is odd considering the honeymoon was spent with Winifred.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09If you look up the Blackburn papers for the day in the '30s,
0:09:09 > 0:09:14it says the happy couple left for a honeymoon in the south.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18It doesn't say they left for a honeymoon with the bride's sister.
0:09:36 > 0:09:42Kathleen left the Post Office after nine years, as rules prohibited married women from working.
0:09:42 > 0:09:47Bert was promoted and they moved to Silloth to live above the bank.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51She passed the time by giving piano lessons.
0:09:51 > 0:09:57Whatever their problems, it was Bert who inadvertently set Kathleen on the path, that in a few years,
0:09:57 > 0:10:04would consume almost every waking moment, giving her no time for relationships, let alone marriage.
0:10:04 > 0:10:10When he bet her a shilling that she wouldn't enter the Carlisle Festival singing competition,
0:10:10 > 0:10:13Kathleen couldn't resist.
0:10:13 > 0:10:20# Down by the Sally gardens
0:10:20 > 0:10:27# My love and I did meet
0:10:27 > 0:10:30# She crossed... #
0:10:30 > 0:10:37Mrs Wilson was on her way, thanks to Bert, and began to build a reputation across the north.
0:10:37 > 0:10:42Two years later, she met the man who changed her voice forever.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46At the Carlisle Festival in April 1939, who was the adjudicator
0:10:46 > 0:10:51who declared that the beauty of her voice stood out like a beacon?
0:10:51 > 0:10:53- Hutchinson.- Correct.
0:10:53 > 0:10:58As a worker, I think she was prodigious. Absolutely prodigious.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02She did far much more than she should have done.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05When I tell you that our lessons,
0:11:05 > 0:11:13which were supposed to be half an hour...long...
0:11:14 > 0:11:20..developed into, well, I know I've gone on at least an hour and a half with her at times.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23We were worn out, but she wouldn't give in.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26KATHLEEN SINGING
0:11:37 > 0:11:43Hutchie, as Kathleen affectionately called him, recognised the quality of the instrument she possessed.
0:11:43 > 0:11:48She blossomed as the lessons became the high point of her week.
0:11:48 > 0:11:53When war broke out, Kathleen Wilson's life altered irrevocably.
0:11:53 > 0:11:59Bert was called up, and the enforced separation effectively ended the marriage.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03Kathleen was now free to pursue her career wherever it might take her.
0:12:11 > 0:12:16As her voice developed, she began singing regularly across the north.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21"Hello, love. I've been singing practically every weekend somewhere
0:12:21 > 0:12:25"and am making my debut under Hutchie a week on Sunday
0:12:25 > 0:12:29"as Kathleen Ferrier. Shivers and shivers.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33"I shall need a lot of pennies that day."
0:12:39 > 0:12:42Determined to succeed and always looking for opportunities,
0:12:42 > 0:12:45Kathleen wrote to the BBC.
0:12:45 > 0:12:51"Dear sir, I am writing to ask if I might have an audition in the near future...
0:12:51 > 0:12:55"I am an contralto and include in my repertoire
0:12:55 > 0:13:00"solos by Bach, Handel, Purcell, Schubert...
0:13:00 > 0:13:03"Hoping to receive a favourable reply."
0:13:05 > 0:13:07She was turned down.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11And the report read, "Rich, clarinet-like quality voice,
0:13:11 > 0:13:15"limited in range and technique at the moment. Good diction.
0:13:15 > 0:13:20"Only suitable at present for small works, such as Bach songs.
0:13:20 > 0:13:27"She sang completely without passion." That doesn't sound like the Kathleen Ferrier we got to know.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31She may not have been good enough for the BBC,
0:13:31 > 0:13:37but she was invited to join CEMA - the Council For The Encouragement Of Music And The Arts -
0:13:37 > 0:13:42the organisation which did concerts to raise morale during the war.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57We did a lot of village concerts,
0:13:57 > 0:14:03and I remember hunting for one in North Riding of Yorkshire
0:14:03 > 0:14:05with Kathleen on board.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08We got hopelessly lost.
0:14:08 > 0:14:13And at one point, she said I think this is the left turn,
0:14:13 > 0:14:16and I said I think it looks a bit funny.
0:14:16 > 0:14:21And I got out and walked straight into a river ford.
0:14:21 > 0:14:27The bit she'd suggested was the village pond. It looked nice and smooth and black.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31So we avoided that and found the hall.
0:14:31 > 0:14:38Not a bit deterred, she said, "While you're parking the car, let me get in and get on with it."
0:14:38 > 0:14:44And by the time I got in, she'd changed into her evening frock and was sailing onto the platform
0:14:44 > 0:14:47as though nothing had happened.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50She had performed, they had gone absolutely mad,
0:14:50 > 0:14:53so she went to give an encore.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57She just stood in front of these thousands of people and said,
0:14:57 > 0:15:00"Art thou troubled by G F Handel?"
0:15:02 > 0:15:07We kept saying, all her life, "Are you still troubled by G F Handel?"
0:15:09 > 0:15:12She was a very easy musician...
0:15:12 > 0:15:15I mean, she could play around with things.
0:15:15 > 0:15:21She'd suddenly transpose the piece to another key and give the...
0:15:21 > 0:15:24give her singer a shock, you know.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27You know Maxwelton Braes Are Bonny?
0:15:27 > 0:15:30- SHE PLAYS PIANO - # Maxwelton braes are bonny... #
0:15:30 > 0:15:33I used to do... # Da-da-da-dee Da-da-da... #
0:15:33 > 0:15:36SHE CHANGES THE KEY
0:15:40 > 0:15:43Used to tease my father very much.
0:15:43 > 0:15:48'I think she was very unconscious of her charms...
0:15:48 > 0:15:52'and certainly didn't try to put it over at all.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55'She was awfully good-looking and...
0:15:55 > 0:15:58'five foot ten tall
0:15:58 > 0:16:01'and held herself well
0:16:01 > 0:16:06'and remained so simple and straightforward.'
0:16:07 > 0:16:10The other artists who heard her
0:16:10 > 0:16:14ALL said, "You must come to London...
0:16:15 > 0:16:17"..to make a career,"
0:16:17 > 0:16:20and engineered it for her.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24So the transition was made easy.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27What wasn't easy for her was taking the plunge,
0:16:27 > 0:16:33because she'd always been used to a sort of provincial, safe life.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36It was an absolute step in the dark.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40She hadn't yet got enough engagements to live on.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43# My work is done
0:16:43 > 0:16:48# My task is o'er
0:16:48 > 0:16:51# And so I come
0:16:51 > 0:16:55# Taking it home... #
0:16:55 > 0:16:57On Christmas Eve, 1942,
0:16:57 > 0:17:02Kathleen moved south to London with Winifred and their widowed father.
0:17:02 > 0:17:09"We are more or less settled in. Have been in a mess with painters, electricians, joiners and plumbers,
0:17:09 > 0:17:11"but we're looking posh now!
0:17:13 > 0:17:17"I made my London debut last night at the National Gallery
0:17:17 > 0:17:21"and oh, boy, did my knees knock!
0:17:21 > 0:17:27"There was a huge crowd there and it was a bit of a facer, so I was glad when it was safely over.
0:17:29 > 0:17:34"Work is rolling in and I'm pretty well booked up until the end of April,
0:17:34 > 0:17:38"which is just as well, the price of rents!"
0:17:41 > 0:17:46I think the war itself brought out something in this country...
0:17:46 > 0:17:53The songs she sang - especially, I suppose, What Is Life? at the end of the war -
0:17:53 > 0:17:55and the place that she came from
0:17:55 > 0:18:00must've played a part in her appeal, as well as the beauty of her voice.
0:18:00 > 0:18:07I've always felt there was a sense of Britishness, not just even Englishness, in Ferrier's songs.
0:18:07 > 0:18:12# Now sleeps the crimson petal
0:18:12 > 0:18:15# Now the white
0:18:18 > 0:18:25# Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk... #
0:18:26 > 0:18:30She had great warmth - I mean, in herself -
0:18:30 > 0:18:34and a most outgoing sort of warmth and kindness,
0:18:34 > 0:18:39and I think, in a curious way, that came through her singing,
0:18:39 > 0:18:43so that when she was singing to an audience, she...
0:18:43 > 0:18:46It sounds rather silly, I know,
0:18:46 > 0:18:51but she sort of embraced them in the music that she was singing
0:18:51 > 0:18:56and so they felt the warmth and love and everything that she gave out
0:18:56 > 0:19:01all the time, which she did with such unstinting generosity.
0:19:01 > 0:19:06She used to stride onto the platform, this tall, elegant woman -
0:19:06 > 0:19:13very different kind of figure from the large prima donna they were all used to -
0:19:13 > 0:19:17with a tremendous sense of...Lancashire warmth.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21She gave a new impetus to performing,
0:19:21 > 0:19:25in the sense that people could... somehow connect with her.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30The most important factor in seeing and hearing her was the radiance...
0:19:30 > 0:19:36- There was a radiance on the platform.- It was something which marked her out.
0:19:36 > 0:19:38If you'd a platform for singers,
0:19:38 > 0:19:42she was the one who stood, as it were, apart.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46By anyone's standards, Kathleen's rise was meteoric.
0:19:46 > 0:19:52By the end of the War, she was performing, had an agent, a recording contract
0:19:52 > 0:19:57and a new singing teacher, Roy Henderson. Her gamble had paid off.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00She was now an artist of national repute,
0:20:00 > 0:20:03good enough even for the BBC.
0:20:03 > 0:20:07The BBC asked us if they could do a live broadcast
0:20:07 > 0:20:10of our performance of the Messiah.
0:20:10 > 0:20:15The atmosphere and the quality of the sound that came across,
0:20:15 > 0:20:17especially Kathleen's...
0:20:17 > 0:20:20interpretation of the words...
0:20:20 > 0:20:25We were so proud of the fact that she was a Blackburn girl.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27One of the things that you remember
0:20:27 > 0:20:31and I think, "Oh, yes, that's our Kath."
0:20:34 > 0:20:38Kathleen was working at an alarming rate.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42In one month alone, she sang Handel's Messiah 17 times.
0:20:42 > 0:20:47One very significant performance was at Westminster Abbey in 1943.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50In the audience was Benjamin Britten.
0:20:52 > 0:20:59Her voice could sing this extremely awkward music without any effort.
0:20:59 > 0:21:04In the part which is usually weakest Kathleen's voice was the strongest.
0:21:04 > 0:21:09# O, thou that tellest good tidings to Zion
0:21:14 > 0:21:20# Get thee up into the high mountain... #
0:21:20 > 0:21:24Kathleen Ferrier had a natural cavity of a mouth.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28If you lobbed an apple across the room, into her mouth,
0:21:28 > 0:21:33it'd go straight down her throat. She had a wonderful open throat.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37Later, when Britten composed The Rape Of Lucretia,
0:21:37 > 0:21:40he remembered Kathleen's voice.
0:21:40 > 0:21:45"I was asked if I'd consider singing the part of Lucretia. Heavens!
0:21:45 > 0:21:50"Could I even walk on stage without falling over my rather large feet?
0:21:50 > 0:21:53"Not to mention having to sing at the same time!"
0:21:53 > 0:21:56I think it was just
0:21:56 > 0:22:02an immediate inspired and inspiring relationship, simply because
0:22:02 > 0:22:08what concerned both of them, in a way, was getting the music across.
0:22:08 > 0:22:14That's what she did and that, I think, he would have adored and admired
0:22:14 > 0:22:18and valued above everything else, and she could do that, as we know.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31# Last night
0:22:31 > 0:22:33# Tarquinius
0:22:36 > 0:22:38# Ravished me
0:22:38 > 0:22:42# And took peace from me and
0:22:45 > 0:22:50# Tore the fabric of our love... #
0:22:50 > 0:22:54It was very intensive work, in those lovely surroundings,
0:22:54 > 0:22:59and I don't know how many weeks they worked, but it was quite a period.
0:22:59 > 0:23:04For Glyndebourne itself, it was a challenge to open with a new opera,
0:23:04 > 0:23:08having in the past just done mostly Mozart.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12So it was quite an adventure for them as well.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16The beginning's always marvellous. She sang it beautifully.
0:23:16 > 0:23:21She didn't find the music as difficult as she thought she would.
0:23:21 > 0:23:25And her natural beauty, sitting there on the stage,
0:23:25 > 0:23:30as soon as the curtain went up, one realised that this was Lucretia.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34# My love
0:23:34 > 0:23:40# Our love was too rare
0:23:40 > 0:23:45# For life to toy with... #
0:23:51 > 0:23:58It was only slowly, I think, that Kathleen developed the right kind of confidence for the later scenes.
0:23:58 > 0:24:03"I couldn't believe how difficult it was to do the simplest arm movements
0:24:03 > 0:24:06"without feeling like a windmill.
0:24:06 > 0:24:12"I used to practise them everywhere. On the lawn, in my room, for hours in front of my mirror.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16"It was hard going and I was an embarrassed beginner.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19"At last, the dress rehearsal came
0:24:19 > 0:24:26"and I had an unsuccessful struggle to change gowns and shoes in four minutes and missed my entry.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28"Then, having stabbed myself,
0:24:28 > 0:24:33"I fell like a hard-baked dinner roll. What a life!"
0:24:33 > 0:24:40Kathleen's performance was well received. It toured nationally and marked her debut at Covent Garden.
0:24:40 > 0:24:45The next year, Kathleen returned to Glyndebourne to sing Orfeo,
0:24:45 > 0:24:49but this time, the experience was not so happy.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52She had problems with the conductor, Fritz Stiedry.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57"The stage manager brought me a lyre of heavy plywood to get used to.
0:24:57 > 0:25:02"It's going to make a lovely weapon when Stiedry tries me too far.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04"He won't know what hit him!
0:25:04 > 0:25:07"He shrugs his shoulders in despair,
0:25:07 > 0:25:11"calls me an oratorio singer and shouts himself hoarse.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14"Have been doing 14 hours a day,
0:25:14 > 0:25:21"but last night I went to the local with the stage manager and had a dirty big pint. It did me good."
0:25:23 > 0:25:25It made quite an impact on me,
0:25:25 > 0:25:30aged...12. Um...
0:25:30 > 0:25:32It was a star performance.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35She didn't behave like a diva and all that.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38She was...
0:25:38 > 0:25:41somebody who assumed the role.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45She was not spoilt by success, but my gosh, she was a star!
0:25:45 > 0:25:49And one felt that with her performance of Orfeo.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00KATHLEEN SINGS
0:26:04 > 0:26:08Kathleen's capacity for friendship was legendary -
0:26:08 > 0:26:12not surprising, as she was very, VERY good company.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15She was very entertaining indeed.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19A great storyteller, some of them not too polite.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23We used to laugh a lot when we were with her, always.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26- She was great fun.- Yeah.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30You mustn't think that she was some kind of an angel.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34She was angelic to work with, but she had her very, very funny side.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38She told us some limericks which one cannot repeat,
0:26:38 > 0:26:42because they really are very, very blue.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46"There was a young lady of Nantes Tres chic et elegante
0:26:46 > 0:26:50"Her hole was so small She was no good at all Except for la plume de ma tante."
0:26:50 > 0:26:55In her encores, which were often folk songs, she opened up
0:26:55 > 0:27:01and then, there's recordings of her singing at a party after she'd had a few, and she lets her hair down...
0:27:01 > 0:27:04- What's the song?- Will-o'-the-Wisp.
0:27:04 > 0:27:09# Will-o'-the-wisp with your dancing light Where do you wander into the night?
0:27:09 > 0:27:14# Will-o'-the-wisp with your dancing light? Will-o'-the-wisp!
0:27:14 > 0:27:17# Will your lantern illumine for me
0:27:17 > 0:27:20# Fairy rings upon a tree?
0:27:20 > 0:27:22# So come! So come!
0:27:22 > 0:27:25# Let's leave this world far behind
0:27:25 > 0:27:29# Will-o'-the-wisp, come! Will-o'-the-wisp, come!
0:27:29 > 0:27:33# Oh, come! Will-o'-the-wisp. #
0:27:33 > 0:27:36LAUGHTER AND CLAPPING
0:27:38 > 0:27:43There's a terrific sense of bawdiness in her, in her letters.
0:27:43 > 0:27:48Lots of limericks...what you might call double entendre jokes...
0:27:48 > 0:27:52Um...you get the feeling
0:27:52 > 0:27:56of a woman of quite substantial appetites,
0:27:56 > 0:27:58whether it's for cigarettes -
0:27:58 > 0:28:05she smoked a brand called Passing Cloud, rather a superior brand, little oval cigarettes...
0:28:05 > 0:28:08She drank - there's references to "dirty big pints"...
0:28:08 > 0:28:11Food was a big thing for her too.
0:28:11 > 0:28:16One wonders about her appetite for sex, and that's a great...mystery.
0:28:16 > 0:28:20It deserves to be a mystery. It will be a mystery for ever now.
0:28:20 > 0:28:25She once wrote that she was a lone she-wolf. She had a relationship
0:28:25 > 0:28:29with an antiques dealer from Liverpool called Rick Davis,
0:28:29 > 0:28:32but in the long run, it didn't really work out,
0:28:32 > 0:28:37because she wouldn't sacrifice, or couldn't sacrifice her career.
0:28:37 > 0:28:41It's not enough to be devoted.
0:28:41 > 0:28:46You have to be obsessed. And when you are obsessed with your music,
0:28:46 > 0:28:49then you can put the energies in
0:28:49 > 0:28:54that you need to gather so that you can then give them to your audience.
0:28:54 > 0:29:01One of the most important and perhaps...difficult things performers have to learn
0:29:01 > 0:29:06is coming through all the technical years of struggling
0:29:06 > 0:29:13to refine what they're doing, learning - it's a great learning process -
0:29:13 > 0:29:19and eventually they reach a point where they're well established in the way they're going to work,
0:29:19 > 0:29:25and at that point, it's a very interesting moment in their lives.
0:29:25 > 0:29:31Some people walk through that final door, which takes a lot of courage,
0:29:31 > 0:29:37because you are actually revealing yourself as an individual human being -
0:29:37 > 0:29:41"This is what I have to say. I'm giving you this music,
0:29:41 > 0:29:47"but I'm saying it in the only way I can, which is totally individual."
0:29:47 > 0:29:52Somebody like Ferrier had that kind of courage to a tremendous degree.
0:29:56 > 0:29:58"Whoopee!
0:29:58 > 0:30:03"Blue skies, sparkling water and millions of flowers!
0:30:03 > 0:30:06"Wish you could see it."
0:30:06 > 0:30:12Kathleen Ferrier's first international engagement was in Holland.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15It was also her very first trip abroad.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19"Arrived all in one piece and enjoyed every minute.
0:30:19 > 0:30:23"Ben, Peter and Eric met us at Amsterdam
0:30:23 > 0:30:26"with a bouquet of roses for all the girls.
0:30:26 > 0:30:31"We had tea in a cafe, and had fun pointing out which cake we wanted,
0:30:31 > 0:30:36"and Ben couldn't reckon up his change at all - guilders and cents!
0:30:36 > 0:30:41"Customs was easy. I was asked if I had inner tubes or bicycle tyres,
0:30:41 > 0:30:46"so I said, 'No, only a spare tyre round me waist.' What a to-do."
0:30:46 > 0:30:49The Dutch were enthusiastic, and her Dutch agent
0:30:49 > 0:30:54immediately began planning her return as a solo artist.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57It was the beginning of a love affair with Holland.
0:30:57 > 0:31:04Kathleen returned again and again in her short career - three times in as many months in 1948 alone.
0:31:04 > 0:31:10If there was one musical culture in Europe during this whole period, it was Holland.
0:31:10 > 0:31:15Holland was ready and generous, and wanting to receive that,
0:31:15 > 0:31:21particularly cos of the appalling horrors of that Nazi occupation,
0:31:21 > 0:31:25which was a really terrible period for that country.
0:31:25 > 0:31:31The Dutch are very musical and very faithful to the people they admire,
0:31:31 > 0:31:38and the then director of the Holland Festival, Peter Diamand, was also a close friend,
0:31:38 > 0:31:41and she just felt very at home there, I think.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45RECORDING OF KATHLEEN SINGING
0:31:48 > 0:31:53"It's simply lovely to be here, and I'm having such an easy time,
0:31:53 > 0:31:56"though an average of a concert every other day.
0:31:56 > 0:32:02"I've had a real rest, and feel I'm not singing so badly, and have ravishing notices.
0:32:02 > 0:32:08"I get bouquets at every performance, three at the Hague, and am being ruined.
0:32:08 > 0:32:12"All the clothes are on points, so there's nothing to buy.
0:32:12 > 0:32:18"But it's a pleasure to walk around Amsterdam, with its canals and trees and lovely houses."
0:32:18 > 0:32:23At her first solo appearance, there were only 150 people there.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26What happened next was extraordinary.
0:32:26 > 0:32:31A radio broadcast and an ecstatic review in a newspaper the next day
0:32:31 > 0:32:35led to the remaining performances selling out within hours.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39Her singing of more sombre music, which always moved audiences,
0:32:39 > 0:32:43struck a particular chord with the Dutch.
0:32:43 > 0:32:48She could have entire orchestras in tears, even quite hardened people.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51I remember Herbert von Karajan dabbing his eyes.
0:32:51 > 0:32:56She certainly could make people cry and she certainly cried herself.
0:32:56 > 0:32:58What that...
0:32:58 > 0:33:02Where that comes from, I don't know.
0:33:02 > 0:33:08I mean, her sister, I think, said that she had been very aware of a kind of...
0:33:08 > 0:33:13of cancer as an agent of death from a very young age,
0:33:13 > 0:33:17because she had seen a neighbour die slowly of it.
0:33:17 > 0:33:23And I think, again according to Winifred, that she had been aware of something wrong with herself
0:33:23 > 0:33:29from as early as kind of 43 or 44, which is an amazing thing, if true.
0:33:29 > 0:33:35But certainly, I think there was certainly an awareness in Ferrier's voice
0:33:35 > 0:33:41that life is not a bowl of cherries all the time, and it had a great kind of haunting melancholy in it,
0:33:41 > 0:33:49which I think is hard to explain, but it certainly found a response in the people who listened to her.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53It was also in Holland that Kathleen found herself
0:33:53 > 0:33:59at the forefront of the post-war revival of the composer Mahler, banned during the Nazi occupation.
0:33:59 > 0:34:02KATHLEEN SINGS MAHLER
0:34:12 > 0:34:16I don't think it has been sufficiently recognised
0:34:16 > 0:34:20that Kathleen Ferrier played a very vital role
0:34:20 > 0:34:25in creating the new culture with regard to Mahler -
0:34:25 > 0:34:29his reception in post-war Holland and elsewhere.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33In retrospect, we see her as one of the founding artists
0:34:33 > 0:34:37who really changed the way
0:34:37 > 0:34:42people heard and thought about the music of Gustav Mahler.
0:34:52 > 0:34:57One of the most striking contributions made to that
0:34:57 > 0:35:02was by Kathleen Ferrier, in association, of course, with Bruno Walter
0:35:02 > 0:35:07in that incredible performance of the work at Edinburgh in 1947.
0:35:07 > 0:35:13"My greatest good fortune has been working with Dr Bruno Walter.
0:35:13 > 0:35:20"To work and learn with him the works and songs of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Mahler
0:35:20 > 0:35:26"is to feel that one is gaining knowledge and inspiration from the composer himself.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30"It is truly memorable to rehearse with him.
0:35:30 > 0:35:35"It is very exciting, and sometimes almost unbearably moving."
0:35:35 > 0:35:38KATHLEEN SINGS
0:35:49 > 0:35:52People were hungry for music at that time.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55We were just after the war,
0:35:55 > 0:36:00and we were desperate for some...high culture,
0:36:00 > 0:36:03and Edinburgh provided that,
0:36:03 > 0:36:09and probably, um, that performance of the Mahler...
0:36:10 > 0:36:14..was just about the apex of that festival.
0:36:14 > 0:36:18You come nearest to hearing what she was like onstage
0:36:18 > 0:36:23in the recital recorded with Bruno Walter at the Edinburgh Festival.
0:36:23 > 0:36:30There is, as there often is in live performance, an extra something, in the happy and tragic songs.
0:36:30 > 0:36:34And there, I feel, almost that Ferrier is again in front of me.
0:36:34 > 0:36:39The extraordinary radiance of the voice - I still remember that.
0:36:39 > 0:36:46The extraordinary, enveloping, overwhelming beauty of Ferrier's voice.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49SINGING CONTINUES
0:37:01 > 0:37:05I think it's very important to remember
0:37:05 > 0:37:11that Bruno Walter did teach her how to sing German, and how to sing lieder.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15And you could see the great rapport between them,
0:37:15 > 0:37:19how Walter very much played to her singing.
0:37:19 > 0:37:26It was obvious from him saying what a profound influence she had on him, apart from him on her.
0:37:26 > 0:37:31BRUNO WALTER: Such rare beauty - beauty of expression,
0:37:31 > 0:37:36beauty of voice, and purity, and beauty of personality.
0:37:36 > 0:37:41It's one of my greatest impressions in my life.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45And, since then, we became very great friends.
0:37:47 > 0:37:52It was Bruno Walter who introduced America to Kathleen.
0:37:52 > 0:37:59She arrived in New York for a series of concerts with him at Carnegie Hall in January 1948.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15Life is good. Already a major star in Europe,
0:38:15 > 0:38:19Kathleen stands on the brink of international success.
0:38:19 > 0:38:24She is 35 years old. The pinnacle of her career is in sight.
0:38:24 > 0:38:28"Here I am in New York and taking it in my stride!
0:38:28 > 0:38:34"What a city! It is just a fairyland of good things and wonderful buildings.
0:38:34 > 0:38:40"I had a day's shopping on Saturday and bought lovely pony-skin boots, some shoes and two woolly pants,
0:38:40 > 0:38:47"a banana, some Lux soap, facecloth, blackcurrant and glycerine sweets, all without coupons!
0:38:47 > 0:38:54"There seems to be huge excitement about this concert, and all three booked out, so I must do my stuff."
0:38:54 > 0:38:57APPLAUSE
0:38:57 > 0:39:04"It was disappointing. The audience was lousy. When I walked out, there was a handful of clapping.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08"I was stunned! I thought I must've dropped my pants!
0:39:08 > 0:39:12"I suppose it's good for one not to hit the headlines all the time.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15"But I wanted to on this occasion."
0:39:15 > 0:39:21From New York, Kathleen went on a month-long tour of America and Canada. It was tough.
0:39:21 > 0:39:24In those days, the artist paid for themselves,
0:39:24 > 0:39:29and for the first time in her life, she was in debt. She hated it.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32The hotels that she stayed in - one of them was so bad
0:39:32 > 0:39:37that she leaves a tidemark on the bath, as an act of revenge,
0:39:37 > 0:39:43and another one is so good, it has such a wonderful toilet, that she won't use it.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47"My big recital is tonight, in this hotel in the ballroom.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51"It is snowing horizontally across my windows.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55"The manager has just sent a bellboy up with a silver bowl
0:39:55 > 0:40:00"with an apple, orange, pear, banana, grapes and a fig leaf.
0:40:00 > 0:40:02"I'll never pay my bill."
0:40:02 > 0:40:06When she went back in 1949 and then in 1950,
0:40:06 > 0:40:08it was a different Kath.
0:40:08 > 0:40:13SHE was the person who dictated the itinerary -
0:40:13 > 0:40:20where she sang, how much she got, what she was responsible for, what she wasn't responsible for.
0:40:20 > 0:40:24# I know where I'm going
0:40:24 > 0:40:27# And I know who's going with me... #
0:40:27 > 0:40:33"I'm just dashing to catch a train to Canada. Eee, if me mother could see me now!"
0:40:33 > 0:40:38APPLAUSE KATHLEEN SINGING
0:40:38 > 0:40:43"The hall was packed, and from the first, they purred.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47"So different from Ohio, where half the audience were knitting.
0:40:47 > 0:40:52"I said I was the highest-paid artist in England, wanted in every country on the continent,
0:40:52 > 0:40:56"and if I was going to suffer and not enjoy my work,
0:40:56 > 0:41:02"I wanted well-paying for it, not going home penniless!" TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
0:41:02 > 0:41:06"He's the one who talks about not working me too hard!
0:41:06 > 0:41:09"Bollocks! And I said I was in the bleedin' Rockies..."
0:41:09 > 0:41:16"I'm fit as a flea, and haven't had a cigarette since I left the boat. In fact, I'm too good to live.
0:41:16 > 0:41:20"Only, I hope no-one's listening, cos I like it just the same."
0:41:20 > 0:41:22APPLAUSE
0:41:22 > 0:41:27When she left in 1950, she was booked to return the next autumn.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31It was an engagement she would be unable to keep.
0:41:33 > 0:41:38- "Aren't I lucky?"- Like Benjamin Britten and Bruno Walter,
0:41:38 > 0:41:42Sir John Barbirolli became a great friend and mentor.
0:41:42 > 0:41:47John was never in a very good mood when he had to conduct in Sheffield,
0:41:47 > 0:41:52which he did once a week, and he had Kathleen as his soloist,
0:41:52 > 0:41:55because the orchestra were raving about her,
0:41:55 > 0:42:00and he always took notice of what the orchestra said.
0:42:00 > 0:42:05And when she came, he was... I don't think he was disappointed with her,
0:42:05 > 0:42:08but he couldn't get what he wanted from the orchestra,
0:42:08 > 0:42:13and he threw his score at somebody, which is something he never did.
0:42:13 > 0:42:19He almost never lost his temper, but he did then, and Kathleen was terrified,
0:42:19 > 0:42:26and she brought this back at him all the years we knew her - the first meeting wasn't that happy.
0:42:27 > 0:42:32He was very much a father figure to her in a different way from Walter, I think.
0:42:32 > 0:42:39Walter, I imagine, trained her more. Probably worked on songs and taught her the German way of singing,
0:42:39 > 0:42:42but I think that Barbirolli
0:42:42 > 0:42:46was a more instinctive and more spontaneous father figure to her,
0:42:46 > 0:42:50and I'm sure, obviously, they had an enormous rapport.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54KATHLEEN SINGING
0:43:05 > 0:43:12He could see that she was becoming the English oratorio contralto, and he didn't want that to happen.
0:43:12 > 0:43:18- And so, he worked on things like the Chausson. ..Wasn't it?- Mm-hm. - Poeme de l'amour et de la Mer.
0:43:18 > 0:43:23Extending her upper range. Things which she thought she couldn't do.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26Testing her voice, so he took it much higher.
0:43:26 > 0:43:30Bruno Walter was surprised about that, and he said to John,
0:43:30 > 0:43:34"What've you done to her, cos she's gone up!"
0:43:34 > 0:43:38KATHLEEN SINGS IN A HIGHER RANGE
0:43:52 > 0:43:57She started staying with us in Manchester when she sang up there,
0:43:57 > 0:44:02cos it was convenient and that sort of thing. We got to know her then.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06And then she decided she'd love to come on holiday with us.
0:44:06 > 0:44:11We had a house in Sussex, so she came there for about a week.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14And so, gradually, it grew,
0:44:14 > 0:44:18but, of course, with John especially it grew musically,
0:44:18 > 0:44:26because he loved her musicality and the way she sang, the way she behaved, everything about her.
0:44:26 > 0:44:32I think everybody loved her, really. We weren't alone in that. But we got to know her very well.
0:44:32 > 0:44:37The marvellous thing about this Olympian fortitude
0:44:37 > 0:44:39of this wonderful person,
0:44:39 > 0:44:46that...as it grew year into year to the end
0:44:46 > 0:44:51she became greater and greater, as if to say,
0:44:51 > 0:44:56"This must fulfil itself before it left," and it did.
0:45:02 > 0:45:06In January 1951, Kathleen's luck ran out.
0:45:06 > 0:45:11On tour in Italy, she was told that her beloved father had died.
0:45:11 > 0:45:19And on her return to England, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy.
0:45:19 > 0:45:24"Things have been happening since I wrote to tell you about my Pop.
0:45:24 > 0:45:31"I discovered a bump on mi busto and after much X-raying, had one bust removed.
0:45:31 > 0:45:37"Now I've to have six weeks of ray treatment, which is sick-making, lazy-making and depressing.
0:45:37 > 0:45:45"But I'm holding my own. Please don't broadcast what's wrong with me. I have wonderful camouflage
0:45:45 > 0:45:49"and things get so magnified in the telly."
0:45:49 > 0:45:55She said afterwards that she was afraid she wouldn't be brave enough to cope.
0:45:55 > 0:46:01But she came through it well and as soon as she was out of danger,
0:46:01 > 0:46:09she was sitting up in bed, chatting again, talking to her friends, having lots of visitors.
0:46:09 > 0:46:15She had behind a curtain, bottles of gin and vermouth and the rest of it,
0:46:15 > 0:46:20so that she could give her friends drinks when the time came.
0:46:20 > 0:46:26And so she coped wonderfully with this situation.
0:46:26 > 0:46:31"My stay in hospital was the pleasantest possible,
0:46:31 > 0:46:35"and I have just about been ruined by kindness.
0:46:35 > 0:46:40"My birthday was riotous - the hospital chef iced a gorgeous cake,
0:46:40 > 0:46:44"and visits from Ben Britten and Peter Piers and many buddies,
0:46:44 > 0:46:49"and all the sweet nurses coming to peep at Ben Britten.
0:46:49 > 0:46:54"Flowers from Barbara Rolley and Malcolm Sergeant. Ruined, I am."
0:46:54 > 0:47:01A few days after her birthday, Kathleen was told that secondary symptoms had been located
0:47:01 > 0:47:05and that she would have to continue radiation therapy.
0:47:05 > 0:47:12"I'm still going to hospital for rays each day. I have only been slightly queasy on a few occasions,
0:47:12 > 0:47:18"when they lay most people totally out - making them violently sick, anaemic and suicidal.
0:47:18 > 0:47:24"So, I'm feeling cocky and with the end in sight, I perk up each day.
0:47:24 > 0:47:30"Two million volts is quite a lot of current going into one's innards, isn't it?"
0:47:30 > 0:47:34Nevertheless, just ten weeks after her operation,
0:47:34 > 0:47:40Kathleen flew to Amsterdam to take part in the Holland Festival.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43KATHLEEN SINGS
0:47:46 > 0:47:50SPEECH INAUDIBLE
0:47:52 > 0:47:56She was a youngish woman to have breast cancer -
0:47:56 > 0:48:00still before the menopause at the time when she got it.
0:48:00 > 0:48:05And she'd obviously had it some time and concealed it,
0:48:05 > 0:48:09as indeed a lot of women used to do in those days.
0:48:09 > 0:48:16There was no way of telling if the tumour might have spread at the time of the mastectomy,
0:48:16 > 0:48:20which of course sadly in her case, it had.
0:48:20 > 0:48:27The following year, despite being seriously ill, Kathleen travelled to Vienna with her assistant,
0:48:27 > 0:48:32to record Mahler's Das Lied Von Der Erde with Bruno Walter.
0:48:35 > 0:48:38KATHLEEN SINGS IN GERMAN
0:48:59 > 0:49:04By now, she'd cancelled numerous engagements at home and abroad
0:49:04 > 0:49:09and was receiving almost continuous radiation treatment.
0:49:09 > 0:49:11She was in considerable pain,
0:49:11 > 0:49:18and it's impossible to listen to the recording they made in those extraordinary, heartbreaking days
0:49:18 > 0:49:22without considering the personal circumstances of the artists -
0:49:22 > 0:49:29Bruno Walter, the composer's friend, and Kathleen, who perhaps knew that it was her own farewell,
0:49:29 > 0:49:34that she might only see the lovely earth grow green again once more.
0:49:34 > 0:49:41Like Mahler, she rose to the challenge of a death sentence by reaching for perfection in her art.
0:49:41 > 0:49:45On the last afternoon when they'd finished the final recording,
0:49:45 > 0:49:50we were all sitting in a small room to hear the final tape.
0:49:50 > 0:49:52When it was finished,
0:49:52 > 0:49:59I will always feel that time completely stood still - just for a few seconds - absolute stillness.
0:49:59 > 0:50:04Nobody said anything. Then Kath quietly walked over to Bruno Walter
0:50:04 > 0:50:08and she said, "Was I all right, love?"
0:50:08 > 0:50:15And the look on Bruno Walter's face was just so incredibly... beautiful, really.
0:50:15 > 0:50:20He had no words either. He just didn't have words to say to her.
0:50:25 > 0:50:31I do well remember the last time I heard her in Lied Von Der Erde
0:50:31 > 0:50:37in November 1952 at the Festival Hall. One knew then that she was very ill.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41I remember she was worried about a draught or something,
0:50:41 > 0:50:44and she threw a shawl round her.
0:50:44 > 0:50:50You then felt the tragedy and timelessness of Lied Von Der Erde
0:50:50 > 0:50:53even more than in her past performances.
0:50:53 > 0:50:58I remember that. It was Josef Kripps, the conductor?
0:50:58 > 0:51:05And he turned to her and in a high German fashion, clicked his heels and bowed.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08I felt that was a special salute.
0:51:10 > 0:51:16After the thrill of being awarded the CBE in the new Queen's first honours list,
0:51:16 > 0:51:20there remained one professional mountain to climb -
0:51:20 > 0:51:26Orfeo at Covent Garden in February 1953, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli.
0:51:26 > 0:51:33Since their concert performances of Orfeo, Sir John had wanted to stage the opera.
0:51:33 > 0:51:39The previous summer, he and Kathleen had translated the Italian libretto.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42I still have the copy,
0:51:42 > 0:51:47because the translation was a little inept, so they altered that a lot,
0:51:47 > 0:51:51and a good deal of laughter sometimes.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54But I think she did enjoy Orpheus,
0:51:54 > 0:52:00despite the fact that she was so ill at the time. Maybe she knew that it was the last time.
0:52:00 > 0:52:05In the morning, when she got up, it was agony for her to move.
0:52:05 > 0:52:09We had to get down a spiral staircase
0:52:09 > 0:52:13and out across the snow and into a taxi.
0:52:13 > 0:52:18It required a tremendous amount from her to do this.
0:52:18 > 0:52:24But when we got to Covent Garden, the most fantastic thing used to happen,
0:52:24 > 0:52:28because somehow or other, the pain seemed to go.
0:52:28 > 0:52:33As soon as she got onstage, she was walking around normally.
0:52:33 > 0:52:37I used to feel I was watching a miracle.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47I remember coming in here and there was great excitement
0:52:47 > 0:52:52because Kathleen was performing and she came for rehearsals.
0:52:52 > 0:52:56I'd heard about her and so had you.
0:52:56 > 0:53:02- And this very tall woman arrived in... Remember?- She was very tall. - And...
0:53:02 > 0:53:07she had this most beautiful face and wonderful bone structure
0:53:07 > 0:53:14and she had gorgeous eyes and very sallow skin. We were not aware that she was so ill.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18This woman came in - she was so HEALTHY
0:53:18 > 0:53:21and full of joys of life,
0:53:21 > 0:53:24and so delighted to meet us.
0:53:24 > 0:53:29As we were only three singers, when you hear a voice like that,
0:53:29 > 0:53:32it gives you the impetus to sing better.
0:53:32 > 0:53:37I don't think I sang so well as when I sang with her in her performance.
0:53:37 > 0:53:44The first night, we were so enraptured with her voice - Adele and I were beside her,
0:53:44 > 0:53:48and spontaneously, we started to applaud.
0:53:48 > 0:53:53- We applauded.- We were just overwhelmed with her voice.
0:53:53 > 0:53:59On opening night, Kathleen sent a gift of cufflinks to Sir John with a note -
0:53:59 > 0:54:03"For my beloved maestro, with my devoted love
0:54:03 > 0:54:09"and oh, so many thanks for making an Orpheus dream come true."
0:54:09 > 0:54:14To hear her singing Che Faro... It was...it was life.
0:54:14 > 0:54:18This woman knowing that she was dying...
0:54:18 > 0:54:24and in her eyes... She didn't cry, but there were tears.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27She had beautiful eyes.
0:54:27 > 0:54:34# What is life to me without thee?
0:54:34 > 0:54:40# What is left If thou art dead...? #
0:54:40 > 0:54:46At the second performance, something went wrong with her leg bones.
0:54:46 > 0:54:49The bone in her leg actually fractured,
0:54:49 > 0:54:54but very few in the audience knew this had happened.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57She just stood in one position
0:54:57 > 0:55:03and, by some sort of telepathy, she made everyone realise that she couldn't move -
0:55:03 > 0:55:07that they'd have to come to her - and they instinctively did.
0:55:07 > 0:55:14She said to me onstage, "I can't bear the pain." I put my hand out. I said, "You lean on it."
0:55:14 > 0:55:21We walked off to the side of the stage. They called an ambulance, but she wanted to go back onstage.
0:55:21 > 0:55:27I said, "All right." So we went back on and we did the finale.
0:55:27 > 0:55:31She'd had secondary breast cancer
0:55:31 > 0:55:36and the cells had gone into her bones - that happens even nowadays.
0:55:36 > 0:55:39The cells weaken the bone,
0:55:39 > 0:55:45and particularly if the bone is a weight-bearing bone like the hip bone,
0:55:45 > 0:55:50if it gets very weak, it can crack and fracture. That's what happened.
0:55:50 > 0:55:53It must have been excruciatingly painful.
0:55:53 > 0:55:59To have continued and managed to finish and got off the stage...
0:55:59 > 0:56:02That's real grit, that is.
0:56:02 > 0:56:08"I couldn't walk the next day and had to be carried down our stairs at great risk to my life,
0:56:08 > 0:56:11"by two perspiring, hefty ambulance men.
0:56:11 > 0:56:16"And here I am, furious at letting Covent Garden down,
0:56:16 > 0:56:23"furious at missing my investiture, but counting my blessings that I am here in wonderful Hams.
0:56:23 > 0:56:27"Much love to all my buddies, Kath."
0:56:27 > 0:56:33In June, Kathleen was awarded one of the highest musical honours -
0:56:33 > 0:56:36the Royal Philharmonic Society's gold medal.
0:56:36 > 0:56:43A month later, she underwent a further operation on which she pinned all her hopes.
0:56:43 > 0:56:50On the 8th of October, 1953, Kathleen Ferrier died peacefully in her sleep.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53KATHLEEN SINGS 'CHE FARO'
0:57:05 > 0:57:09In 1953, when I first came to London as a student,
0:57:09 > 0:57:13I remember coming out of the Underground at Oxford Circus,
0:57:13 > 0:57:20and being confronted by the newspaper adverts that this famous singer had died.
0:57:20 > 0:57:23I knew exactly who it was.
0:57:23 > 0:57:30I felt very sad because I knew I wasn't going to have the opportunity ever to get to know her.
0:57:30 > 0:57:35It was a cutoff period. Something was very definitely over,
0:57:35 > 0:57:38and I think all my generation felt that.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57Subtitles by BBC Broadcast 2003
0:57:57 > 0:58:00E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk