Adele Leigh

 

Another of my early links to the musical world came though my parents' friendship with Sally and Kenneth Snowman who in turn were friends with the soprano Adele Leigh. In fact Adele had given me Toscanini's recording of Beethoven's 2nd and 4th symphonies for my Bar-mitzvah. I treasured that record. It was of of the first in my collection. 

Adele had a noteworthy career singing in the world premiere of Tippett's 'Midsummer Marriage' for example and many other roles at Covent Garden. She had become a member of the company at the age of 19. She was very beautiful and appeared in musicals and variety as well as opera and operetta. Towards the end of her career at Covent Garden I remember seeing her as Oktavian in Rosenkavalier. She had sung Sophie under Erich Kleiber previously.

On starting the agency I thought the decent thing to do was to present Adele in a 'Liederabend' at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Sadly she was not singing well by then and also the hall was half empty. She wasn't happy about that!

She retires soon after and was married to a charming man called Kurt Enderl who was Austrian ambassador to London. I was invited to dinner at their 'Residenz' on the Rozsadom, Budapest on one of my trips there. It was just the three of us. I remember a flunky coming in halfway through the meal. 'Ist was los?' asked Kurt anxiously. Thankfully nothing was 'los.' The whole scene was straight out of a Viennese operetta. 

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