Anne Sofie von Otter / Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble HANDEL - MONTEVERDI - TELEMANN - ROMAN

I'm very proud of the first solo disc that I did which was recorded for Proprius, a Swedish label, with songs and arias by Telemann, Monteverdi, Roman and Handel. It was in 1983, and I was comparatively young - 27, I think - and I was so inexperienced. But I was sort of in charge. It was all done rather instinctively. I'd never sung a whole Handel opera but one of the coaches at the Guildhall said I should look at the aria "Where shall I fly" from Hercules, and then I heard on the radio Piangerò from Giulio Cesare and I thought that was divine. We had no conductor, no rehearsals: we just got on with it. I stood in front of the ensemble and made signs with my pencil where they should play faster or slower or stop. Miraculously, it all worked very well and this disc is still on sale. It was used by my agent as a sort of business card. That's how Georg Solti, for instance, heard of me and why he booked me. (Anne Sofie von Otter / BBC Music)