Baby Doe in Britain – babydoe.org – Home Page of Baby Doe Tabor & the DoeHEADS

March 1996
Photos and text courtesy of Peter Stanford

I was not a member of UCL at the time, in fact I was thirty and had graduated from Oxford a generation before. I met the conductor of the opera, David Drummond, on a tube train and was invited to join the production. I threw myself into the show, but had no sense of belonging to the college. As for the production, the director placed a large tetrahedron on the stage in act one. This was fine when there was only Tabor and Augusta, Adelina Patti and the cronies watching with their wives (I hadn`t thought of any of this for a decade, how it all comes back) or Augusta and the maid, but got awfully crowded for the finale which was the only time the chorus all stood there. The tetrahedron was removed for the second act. Before the production rehearsals (i.e. from the beginning of January until about half-way through February) we all had to learn all the minor chorus roles, so that the director could choose us for these parts on the basis of our looks. So, while I was coached to be a Dandy because of my singing, I was instantly cast as Papa McCourt. I was later allowed to be a newspaper seller announcing Bryan`s defeat.