Kathryn the great
Your obituary of Kathryn Harries (August) played down her abilities as a singer and an actress. I was lucky enough to when she played Dido with both dignity and vulnerability as well as a rock-steady singing technique. I met her many years later and found her happy to talk about that production, especially when she heard that I had managed to get hold of a DVD of it. I had been on stage during her final climactic scene and found the experience doubly moving for being so close to the action. I asked her if she had concealed a bottle of eyedrops about her person, only to be told that they had been real tears coursing down her cheeks as she prepared to meet her fate. While we were chatting, she greeted various acquaintances and introduced me as: ‘This is Andy. We were in a show together in Lyon in the 1980s.’ There was no mention that she was the star and I was at the back of the chorus. A lovely person.
