THEPEOPLE DENNY DAYVISS
Report June Rendle
A
busy road in Marbella, a very hot day and an unhelpful porter. I eventually found the rear entrance into the large apartment block and stood bemused, until I heard a wonderful sound. It was Denny Dayviss who was standing outside her door at the end of the corridor singing from Madame Butterfly to direct me to her. “Come in my dear,” she beckoned “please help me to open this bottle of cava.” Petite, with loose blonde hair framing a pretty face, her bright blue eyes sparkling with pleasure, she led me into her home. Denny’s apartment is on the ground floor, in the corner of the development; the terrace overlooks large gardens, a swimming pool with children splashing and shrieking, the road and the sea in the distance. In all of this normality lives a fascinating lady. Denny is first and last a soprano. From the age of four she has sung opera, and when she was 12 she knew and sang every word of Madame Butterfly and La Boheme. “My grandmother was a soprano, and my mother a ballerina, and music was our life. I thought that it was normal to be dancing and singing all day. I was born in Durban, South Africa, which I love, but we left when I was 12 because we hated apartheid and it was time for me to go to London to be professionally trained at the Royal Academy of Music.” We were still struggling to get the cork from the bottle of cava and, agreeing that it was a man’s job, I asked if she had ever been married? “Oh yes,” she said dismissively, “Three times, but it never worked out. My fault really, I suppose. I could never do the ‘little woman at home’ bit. I was always too busy with the opera.” The cork shot out at last and we settled down to details, and what an amazing life Denny has had. Agents in London were very quick to sign her up when they heard her sing, and she sang frequently at Wigmore Hall – she sings in five languages, and in a concert in London for South Africa she sang in Afrikaans and Zulu. “I love singing, but I was very frustrated by managements who were so tentative about trying anything new or out-of-the-ordinary, so I decided to present opera myself.”
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What a gift she gave to opera and to the world. She, as impresario, presented productions at the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, the Barbican – the list goes on and on. The performances and performers involved read like a ‘Who’s Who?’ of opera. “I began with Les Huguenots by Myerbeer, in the Royal Albert Hall in January 1968, which starred Joan Sutherland. It is an opera that had not been seen for nearly 100 years, and I followed that with another revival, Lucretia Borgia, by Donizetti, in October 1968, also in the Royal Albert Hall, which starred Montserrat Caballé making her London debut.” “The critics went wild over her, having been very lukewarm until they heard her sing, and agents nearly came to blows longing to represent her. Her brother Carlo was her manager, and her career was made from that night.” “José Carreras made his international debut in my production of Mary Stuart by Donizetti in July 1971 – do you know that story?” I gulped on my cava, shook my head, and she told me a story, which is the stuff of legends, about the beginning of a career for a man who is now known worldwide. “In 1970 the very young, unknown except to a small group in Spain, José Carerras sang a small part, that of Flavio in Norma at the Liceu in Spain, and the star of the opera, Montserrat Caballé, heard him and was so impressed that she persuaded me to cast him with her in the forthcoming production of Mary Stuart in London.” Although he had only a small part he caused
a sensation, the audience gave him a standing ovation that went on and on. A partnership developed between them that lasted for many years, and they sang in at least 15 operas together, with Carlo Caballé as his manager too.” José Carreras went on to sing in Denny’s productions many times during his career, including singing at the Barbican in May 1984, in a Concert of Popular Songs. “Plácido Domingo?” I asked hesitantly. “Oh yes, a lovely man, so gifted. I wish you could have heard him in my production of Samson and Delilah at the Royal Festival Hall in June 1973.” Hanging on the wall of the apartment are 2 large pictures made up of photographs, press cuttings, programmes, and I recognised Maria Callas – “oh, you knew her too?” “Of course my dear, she was a great friend of mine, and I was arranging a concert for her in London; she was so unhappy with her private life. The concert never happened because she died a month after our phone conversations. But in June 1983, I gave a Royal Gala Performance in her memory at the Barbican with Grace Bumbry – there, you see her photo?” “You have lived all over the world – where would you describe as the best place?” “I am so glad you asked me that because I have a lovely story to tell you. In the 1980’s, I had a large house in Regents Park in London, and I loved it, always feeling particularly happy in the Sitting Room on the first floor. I found I could sing best in there; I always felt uplifted when I walked into the room. One day a very old friend
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