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Jessye Norman
Legendary Opera Soprano
Jessye Norman: I don't think that I have had doubts about my ability. What I certainly have had doubts about, particularly as a very young performer, was being allowed to have what I felt -- and what a lot of people felt -- as my potential to catch up with my age, or perhaps it was vice versa. I'll give you an example. As a very young singer, I was invited to the opera house in Berlin by the then-director of the opera house, Egon Seefehlner, and I had one opera to my name that I knew. He felt that there was a lot that I could learn there, which was very true, and I was so lucky to be able to have this opportunity. The thing that was happening is that I kept being offered operas that I knew that I wasn't ready to sing, just from an experience point of view, as well as being 24 years old. So I was always asked to sing things that I thought, "Well no, I really don't think I should sing that now. I need to sing that maybe in five years, or maybe in 10 years, but not right now. Couldn't I please sing something else?" And that became a difficulty for me. And after being at the opera house for three years, and singing Elsa and Elisabeth -- the Wagner roles that are not sort of the heavy Wagner roles -- and then Mozart operas that suited my voice at the time, I was continually invited to sing things that I just felt I shouldn't. So I took it upon myself to go to speak with the artistic director to say that I thought I should leave the opera house, and come back in some years when my maturity sort of chronologically would have caught up with the invitations that I was being offered. Of course, considering that he'd taken me into the opera house when I knew one role, he wasn't all that happy. I thought he'd say, "Oh, what a smart girl. Oh yes, absolutely. That's what we'll do." No, no. He was absolutely furious.
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Jessye Norman
Legendary Opera Soprano
I decided that I had to save myself by leaving the opera house. It isn't as though I had, you know, sort of sheaves and sheaves of work. I made this decision because I was trying to save myself. I have always sung more solo recitals with piano than opera, but it isn't as though I had recitals lined up all over the world. I had two or three things that I knew that were coming up, but I didn't have a lot after that. So at that point in my very young life, I wasn't sure whether or not I was going to be able to continue, because it wasn't certain that I would have enough work as a solo performer to support myself. So there were probably about two months before I actually told my parents what I'd done. When I called them, and my mother was on one extension and my father was on the other one, which was in the kitchen, and there was stunned silence. And my father said, "Well sister, how is it going since you've left the opera house in Berlin?" I said, "Well actually, I have two recitals in this place, and another recital in that place, and I think I'm going to be all right." And at some point mother said, "Do you need to come home?"
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Antonia Novello
Former Surgeon General of the United States
(My teacher) called my mother and despite of the fact that I was 20, she called my mother to tell her, "I want her to have surgery." And, my mother said, "She's 20. She can speak for herself. Do you want it?" I said, "Mommy, if I have to have that surgery without any explanation or no limitation, I think I'd rather die." And, Mommy said, "It is your body and you will take care of it they way you want to." And that was the end of it. But, it was painful because people make decisions for you in your benefit without asking you what is good for you.
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Sir Trevor Nunn
Theatrical Director
Unquestionably, the first few weeks when I took on running The Royal Shakespeare Company, it wasn't just self-doubt. I mean I was deeply frightened. I was frightened that I was going to be exposed, or even -- you know, I was going to have to go through the ignominy of being rebelled against. You know, that there were people working for me who were going to say, "I'm sorry, I'm not going to go on doing this because I don't respect the leadership sufficiently." I mean, I was deeply frightened that that was going to happen. There have been a number of other occasions, but it's to do with trusting your judgment. At one stage we were in bad financial shape at Stratford, and I decided to do a rare Shakespeare play and to spend more on the design image of it than had been spent on other productions. People said, "This is totally crazy, with the financial situation that we're in." And I said, "I think we've got to give the opposite message. I think we've got to get people into the theater because we're giving them more and the word will spread." Having taken that decision, in the weeks or the days immediately prior to the opening of that, yes, I was deeply frightened that that was a mistake and that would mean the end of the regime, the end of my job. And the opposite happened.
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Sir Trevor Nunn
Theatrical Director
If you can't fully believe in your ideas, it very quickly communicates to a group of actors who need something to hold onto. They need to believe that whatever criticism, whatever comment is received, is meant. And, if they pick up the message of "I might mean this. On the other hand, I'm feeling rather doubtful about myself, so maybe I don't mean it. And maybe you've got a better idea. Or maybe actually what he said is better." Then, of course, chaos reigns. And self-doubt is something that communicates very quickly through an acting company. It's contagious.
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