YouSaid · the spoken record

Raymond Gubbay

lines on the record: 55
first: 2006-12-03
most recent: 2006-12-03
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“It would be an espresso coffee machine with those cop capsules that give you wonderful coffee because I live by that, and as long as I could take an equal supply of decalf and strong coffee, I'd be very happy that would keep me going forever.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I'd like to take the unabridged Collins Robert, French English, English, French dictionary, it delves into the language in such a way and it explains how it's used as well as simple translations. I would find great entertainment and enjoyment from being able to delve into that.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's the Brook Violin Concerto played by Yehudi Menuin, somebody I had the enormous pleasure of working with on many occasions, and he actually played the Brook Concerto in the Barbican for me. He also did a lot of conducting there, and I actually presented what turned out to be his last concert at the Royal Albert Hall with the Beethoven Choral Symphony. He died three months later.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Grandfather Nyth. Yes, I've got six grandchildren. I mean, that's my life, really. I've got three in Ireland and three over here. And they're a hugely important part of my life”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I don't think it helped my marriage which fell apart it was at the time when I was working very hard after the barbican had opened and I think it wasn't the only reason but it were the pressure of working evenings and weekends in particular probably did put a further strain on the marriage and didn't help certainly.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A sort of band of brothers on the road. Band of brothers in a wonderful minibus with very comfortable seating and he liked to have smoked salmon sandwiches and muskade. And so we always had to pack plenty of that into the minibus. And after about half an hour of driving towards Leeds or somewhere up the motorway he'd suddenly say Cubbers, do you think we could break out the smokers and the muskers? We'd do that. And everybody was thereafter pretty mellow all day long, but it was great. He was a fantastic performer. Oh, I'm afraid.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh yes, that was a joy. We did a program about cricket, started it off at the Barbican during one of the Christmas festivals, and then went on to take it all round the country. It was great fun.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh yes, of course, I mean it's nice to get praise when it's there, but I love going to rehearsals. I'm always I try not to hang around all the time, but I certainly go to rehearsals not only just to be seen but because I actually like to be there and to hear the music and I hum along and I'm terrible probably I make too much noise humming and singing away in the corner and they have to shut me up but it's just part of it's one of the great pleasures of what I do.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, it did. Yes, three months of each other because my mother died first she'd had Alzheimer's disease very sadly for the last five years of her life, and my father was a support so supportive, incredibly so, and I think when she died he just gave up and it was sad but very moving that they died so close together.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I think he really did enjoy it, and it was very thrilled. He was terribly thrilled one day he told me he'd rung up the chartered Institute of Chartered Accountants and given his name Gabe and they said, Oh, as in Raymond, and so he was really thrilled about that. I just have to remember that.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My next piece of music is Marriage of Figaro Dove Sono, the Countess Isaria from Acts three sung by Elizabeth Schratzkopf.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't think it would be a third opera house, but I think operatic projects in the West End could work in the right circumstances”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not in the same way, but would I try and do something operatic in the west end? Yeah, why not? You know, if the right opportunity came and I thought the project was right. I think you've got to be an optimist in this business. That's what drives you.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it's easy too to say that I'm not sure that is right indeed, I mean we had a lot of support from people in the business Yes, they can take satisfaction from saying that we got it wrong and I can't gain say that but you know in this business you've got to be an optimist you've got to be able to come back to bounce back and you know I carried on.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think we knew pretty early on, I think we knew pretty early on. You know, even before the season opened, you can see as soon as the tickets go on sale, there was this huge enthusiasm for the season we had enormous press support. The critics were mixed, but there were some very, very good press. But at the end of the day, we just simply couldn't sell the tickets, and we had to take it off.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I don't think so, I think we got it wrong, you know, I take it right on the chin because I was convinced we could make it work, but we couldn't, I think the time was bad. I think the The choice of repertoire was bad maybe it different at a different time it would have been different. But I think it was a question of image, a question of It's as simple as this. We could not sell enough tickets, we couldn't sell that the tickets that we needed to sell tick to keep it going. And this happens in the West End all the time, so we were just, you know, we were wrong”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We opened with two operas which was probably a mistake the marriage of Figaro and the Barbara Seville, and I think probably in hindsight the two operas themselves were probably not the ones we should have opened with”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My next record is Edith P singing Lavian Rose. I could have chosen any number of Edith Piaff songs. It reminds me so much of Paris which I love, and sitting on the boulevard with La Figarot and a coffee and watching the world go by.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, not at all, no, no, no, no, and as I said earlier, you know, I'm a great supporter of subsidy. It's just a question of channeling it in the right way. There are vast areas of the country which don't get orchestral touring, for example, don't see ballet companies. The whole area of bringing children to performances is one that's very largely ignored. All these are things which I think are much more important than putting money into Covent Garden. But that's just my hobby horse.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When it was a different way of doing it it was a different approach, and it was radical and radical. would have made a lot of changes. I happen to think that what's happened since with Tony Hall at the Opera House is very good. I think he runs it extremely well within the confines of the system that's there, and they've changed their image and they're no longer the sick man of Bow Street, so I think that's very positive.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, yes, yes. And I knew they wouldn't wear that, but surprisingly, I got a lot of heavyweight support and articles in the press and so on. And in fact, the twelve point plan that I'd come up with made a lot of sense. I mean, I still would be happy to stick by it. Well, are you asking me to dig back in my memory, but I know there were ways of saving money by keeping the opera in the ballet separate, not changing the opera every night, but double casting it so that you could run Boem for a week and then change it with a double cast to another opera, all the things that seemed to make good financial sense because the way the opera companies run with this stagone system of changing the repertoire each night is the most inefficient from a cost point of view and makes no sense at all.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I had Aida coming on in the following February and it was a good opportunity to stir things up and get a bit of publicity.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My fifth record is the finale from the nutcracker, ballet something I've been involved with over a number of years, but the nutcracker in particular is the ballet that I remember that I took my children to when they were very small, like I suppose so many people do. It reminds me of cold winter afternoons in the fest going into the festival hall and this magic world that opens up with the ballet, and children, little children being enchanted and having a great time.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I'm glad they do because I think if people don't talk about you, you're not succeeding. So jolly good, you know. I can only judge by what happens at the box office. People tell us very clearly with their feet if they want to come or not, and that's the only criteria that I've got to get it right. There is a vast audience for this, and that's what I hope that I satisfy.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I mean, you've got something to sell, you've got to go out and sell it. There's no point in being tame about it. You've got to put the message across, and it's very important to do that, and that's what I think my colleagues and I do.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think we all benefit from each other in this business, bringing big audiences into the Arbert Hall benefits the music business generally because some of those people will trickle the other way if you like.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think you'll find people that will do both. And it's always when people ask me about the opera, it's quite difficult because they do wonderful productions then, you get the world's best singers. But when you're asked to pay £175 for a ticket and it's subsidized, that is what does sometimes rankle. And it's not that I'm against subsidy. Far from it, I've always been hugely supportive of subsidy, but I think subsidy needs to be used in the right way, and I'm not sure that putting it towards tickets that are already so hugely expensive is right. After all, if people can pay $175, why don't you ask them to pay two hundred and twenty or whatever the real price is without the subsidy and use that money for something more worthwhile?”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't think there is a typical customer if you look at the opera audience at the Albert Hall, there's young and old and families and children and so on, so it's very much a miber.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not at all now, they can't call me what they like, I've been called so many things over the years doesn't worry me at all.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it's Maria Callus because I once had the pleasure of hearing her at Covent Garden when she was actually then doing Tosca, but this is now singing Sempre Libre from La Treviata. I was taken at a very tender age to see it at the old Sad as well theatre with the what was then the Saddleswell's Opera Company, and it stuck in my mind because I remembered that Violetta took such a long time so it seemed to die at the end and I thought opera must be rather boring but I've since learnt better.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know what you like, you like what you hear, but are you going to say that somebody who goes to a gallery and sees paintings can't appreciate them for what they are, they have to know all the background? No, I don't think so. I think you go to be stimulated to enjoy, to listen to what you like, and that's really important.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not at all. I mean, I think that's what's helped to make classical music so much more accessible. It is the fact that it's used in jingles and theme music or whatever, and people say, oh, that's what that piece is, is it? I never knew that. That happens time and time again.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That you could Well, in those early days it was much simpler because I said we had three or four singers and a pianist and most of the venues gave me a fee, very small fees. I mean there were fees like eighty guineas, eighty four pounds that is, or ninety pounds, I remember these very well, and I had to pay the singers and the pianist and the transport and the hotels and make some money. I mean, I never lost money from day one, but relatively quickly I was able to earn a modest living. Now it's great. I loved it. I mean, I thought originally I'd have work for about six months, but here I am forty years later doing much the same thing.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Flames the venue. Yes, exactly so, puts the whole thing together. It's finding the project, costing it out, making sure it works financially, finding the talent to make it work, and booking the venue and advertising and selling the tickets, and hoping that at the end of the day more comes in at the box office than you're paying out.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I've never called myself an impresario. I've always called myself a concert promoter, so I was found Imprisario a bit pretentious.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because it's Victoria de Los Angeles who I had the great pleasure of working with on many occasions in the nineteen seventies, singing with Usibling, whose voice to me is just the great tenor voice. He and Los Angeles together singing the love duet is just sublime.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'd got a job at the Hintelsham Festival in Suffolk making the scenery, and I remember that there was a very eccentric man called Tony Stokes who owned Hintelsham Hall, and his son had a record of Madame Butterfly of the love duet, and I remember listening to it, and I think I probably heard it was about the first time I'd ever heard it. And it made a big impact on me.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I went for the interview there were three questions Where did you go to school? Are you a Jewish boy? Can you start on Monday? And that was it and I lasted ten months, twenty eight days and twelve hours, which was hugely encouraging and entertaining for me. I had a great time. I learnt an enormous amount. It was a very fast learned university.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not at all, no. I mean, he upset my mother terribly because I think in the end he lost £200 or maybe it was more than that, but whatever it was, she said you're never again going to do this. But it just was the spark that set me going, and that was how I thought I'd rather like the life and enjoyed it, and thereafter he saw how keen I was, and he made a chance remark to Arnold Weskerbal people, and he happened to mention to Arnold Wesker that his son was looking for a job in the theatre, and Arnold Wesker happened to mention the same to Victor Hochhauser, and so I found I got an interview with Victor Hockhauser out of the blue.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I didn't really, I didn't know at all until my dad was determined to put on Mozart's Il Seralio at the and he had an opportunity to do it at the St. Pancras Town Hall and he got me involved in that and I found I enjoyed it very much and that was really what set me going.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, I think yes, very much, because my brother had become a medical student, so that was in a very respectable, but I was a bit of a Bohemian, you know, not quite knowing what I wanted to do.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, that was my dad who wanted me to be articled, and in those days you could be articled at sixteen with just five O levels, so I'm not sure it was a very good idea to leave at that point, but I did, and that was it.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it's the Emperor Concerto, Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. The Emperor Concerto was the first concerto that I programmed at the Barbara.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think I was. I loved going to the theatre. I loved the moment when the curtain goes up and you were taken into whatever different world it happens to be, a world of make-believe or whatever, to be entertained. And that really thrilled me and I enjoyed it hugely.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, we lived, as I say, in Golders Green, and there was the Golders Green Hippodrome. My grandmother used to go up to the gods for half a crown in old money on wooden benches, and then when I was a little older there was the doily cart which came every year with the Gilbert Sullivan, which I loved, there was ballet, there were plays every week, and it used to be the final tour date before going into London. I saw a huge number of stars and ballet I remember seeing Fontaine and Nurief, saw Marlin, Dietrich, Sibyl Thorndyke, all kinds of actors and actresses and famous people.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I suppose I was a bit, but I was brought up in Golders Green, I was born just after the war, and it was a very interesting place to be, it was very cosmopolitan, because there were loads of guttural accents, there were loads of refugees from pre war Europe, and I remember going as a nipper to the festival of Britain and being amazed by all the colour and the light and gay of everything there. It was in very stark contrast to the kind of everyday life that was going on around.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I've just always done it, and so I suppose it's second nature to me, and it's not so much that I'm in charge, it's just the freedom to do what I want to do, that I think counts for a lot.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, about eight months after I was at that point six months behind with the correspondence course, so I knew I hated it, so I couldn't carry on with that.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, it was because in those days it was the time when Jenny Lee had encouraged the local authorities to put money into the arts and to build little halls and theatres which were going up around the countryside, and so I was going round with three or four singers and a pianist offering Gilbert and Sullivan evenings or Viennese evenings. At one time I was doing about one hundred and fifty a year all over the country. So that really is how it started.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, my first record is the death of Lou from Tirundot. I've chosen Turundot because it was the opera which I did at Wembley with the Royal Opera House about fifteen years ago now, and it was the first time they'd ever done an arena opera, and the death of you is the point where Puccini finished the opera, he couldn't write the happy ending, even though he finished it four years or so before he died. It's a very poignant moment, and I'd like to hear it with Montserrat Caballer.”
2006-12-03 · Desert Island Discs · Raymond Gubbay · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source