Janet Baker, the wind in her hair

She was playing with the sound of the waves from the bow, it seemed to me, 'Never before under sail', she said. It was very close to song. The pitch was good. She had our precise rhythm. 'Sometimes to sea, but never before under sail.' So well did she know the behaviour of her own voice that she spoke softly ahead and we heard her aft, by way of the breeze. She was at the mast, ahold of the rigging, a scarf to guard the hair, a kerchief to shelter the throat. 'Never before,' her husband Keith said, 'quite true.' Keith was also her manager, and he looked nervous for her. She sang at concert in Sydney yesterday, and must sing again tomorrow. I called her to the cockpit, but she stayed where she was. She peered over her sunglasses. 'Do you think I am fragile in my old age?'