Our first efforts in 1948 were both by Mozart - Così fan tutte and Don Giovanni with Vittorio Gui and Rafael Kubelik conducting. The singing was a revelation to me; rehearsals with such singers as Silveri, Ljuba Welitsch, Hilde Gueden and our own Richard Lewis in the Don, and Erich Kunz, Mariano Stabile and Suzanne Danco in Così were a great delight even in some of the drills halls and country dance schools in London which were the best rehearsal halls at the time. Performance in Edinburgh were even more pleasurable in spite the conditions, and this first visit to Edinburgh is among my happiest memories. I think possible the most precious feature of it was its unifying effect upon the Royal Phil. It was a fairly new orchestra, and reasonable young for the most part. << less