STAGEVISIONS I 2010
My story begins on one of many flights home to England from Germany, following a week filled with galas and ovations, engagements and rehearsals. Seven years ago this was always alone but today immensely happy with my wife Kaybee by my side. Amid the intoxication of Veuve Cliqueot I think back and wonder……
I remember like yesterday, time spent listening to my uncle’s “state of the art” radiogram. It was the love of my father who had been totally blinded in World War II. It was later said to me: “How wonderful that, although your father has never seen you, you have the ability to bring him joy with your voice.” I played endlessly MGM’s “The Student Prince” starring Mario Lanza. I was six years old and totally carried away by the beautiful charismatic voice of Lanza. How could I know that twenty-four years later I would be singing as a professional and invited by Mario´s family to sing in America, commemorating his life twenty years after his death. How would I know that my greatest mentor, Leonard Bernstein, (following five visits to the cinama to see, “West Side Story”) would play the most important role in my career? How would I know, following an opera career, having sung over forty-five opera roles and having worked with Tito Gobbi, Richard Bonynge, Sir Geraint Evans and singing for and taking advice from Luciano Pavarotti, that I would now be singing and interpreting the greatest musicals of our time?
The fact is that none of us know what this life is to bring. One must take the chance, the opportunity, the risk. One must live for the moment –tomorrow never comes! Life is an adventure in time, “a time to share, a time to learn”, an adventure to pass on, not only to our generation, but to generations to come, it must be passed on with love, compassion, understanding, with music, with strength of oneself for others. The circle of life is giving and receiving.
John Cashmore
.
A dream voice in the world of opera and musicals