David Rendall, the tenor, is singing in the new production of Madame Butterfly at the Coliseum in London, just one of the many engagements around the world which fill his diary until 1988. In conversation with Roy Plomley, he recalls how, in only six years, he jumped from being a clerk in the BBC Gramophone Library to singing principal roles at Covent Garden, and he chooses the eight records he would take to the mythical island.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Die Schone Mullerin No 7 by Franz Schubert