Hello everyone, I do hope you have all managed to keep well throughout this wretched year. There hasn’t been a lot to report: the weather has been miserable and this whole Covid business has been frightening us for far too long. It is so good to be able to go to concerts again and to see real live opera performances, but it isn’t yet the kind of life we were lucky enough to enjoy before 2020. However, I am taking my courage in both hands and travelling to Munich in September- indeed next week-  for the ARD Competition, and then to Paris and Provence in October. I can’t quite believe it: it will be the first outing for my British passport…. The garden has been a source of delight once again, and quite different from last year because of all the rain. The grass is green and the roses are still flowering. My sweet peas were a triumph and are still blooming. The birds and wasps and mice and squirrels have eaten all the apples, but they’ve left us some pears and some figs for which we're grateful. All the shrubs and all the weeds have grown to ridiculous proportions so there’s plenty of demolition work to do- I like that because I can’t get it too badly wrong and upset the gardener (my husband)! Here come some photos, and perhaps I shall see some of you somewhere this year or next. With very best wishes, Flott

  

 

"Il nous faut de l'amour"
Buchet / Chastel
ISBN 978-2-283-02888-9

Olivier Bellamy, a French journalist with a daily programme on Radio Classique, who has written books about Martha Argerich and Teresa Berganza, has written a book with me/about me: Il nous faut de l’amour, published by Buchet Chastel. It is in French!
It seems very self-indulgent to have written a book about my career and life- it wasn’t my idea! But after spending hours looking back and remembering people and events, I feel very fortunate and very privileged. I’ve worked with some wonderful people and made some very good friends. Several people should have received credits in the book, which suddenly came out very quickly after being in the pipeline for a couple of years. Without all the work done by Marina Lewandowski on this website, it would have been impossible to publish a discography. And special thanks are due to my friend Sue Jones and her husband Paul, for putting all my performances on to a database from which we could extract a list of operas, colleagues and conductors. My agent, Robert Rattray, who looked after me all my performing life until he vanished across the Pond, should have a chapter to himself for being a very caring, shrewd and wise Manager, steering me through some choppy waters. And my family has been endlessly patient and supportive. I apologise if this sounds as though I’ve won an Oscar; I couldn’t really be more surprised if I had!  Felicity