I first got to know Charles well when he came to Welsh National Opera to do Martinů's Greek Passion in 1981, though I'd played for him before when I was in the orchestra at Covent Garden – I remember playing Tosca with him there. Once we knew Richard Armstrong was going to resign, Brian McMaster came to the orchestra with various suggestions for his successor, and with The Greek Passion I had immediately been impressed by the chemistry Charles had with the orchestra, right from the start. We had lunch together during Don Giovanni rehearsals in 1984. Brian McMaster had asked me to sound out Charles if the opportunity came up, though Brian was very keen on modern productions and wasn't sure how Charles would be with those. Well, that lunch lasted five hours – we probably all had a bit too much to drink – but it clinched it. Afterwards we went back to the office in John Street and found McMaster. Charles announced: ‘I'm coming here!’ In a way, he didn't need to come to WNO – he had plenty of work all over the world – but just as we benefited so much from having him, it gave him the opportunity to perform operas he hadn't done in Britain before and to work with a new generation of singers.

On a personal level, too, Judy was becoming concerned about his nomadic lifestyle and was delighted at the idea of a more settled existence for them, without such extensive and exhausting travelling. They found a lovely flat in Kymin Terrace, Penarth (just south of Cardiff Bay), and liked it very much – it was a place where they could relax and be comfortable when they weren't in London. It was frustrating for him when the New Theatre in Cardiff was closed for renovations, making it necessary to travel to Swansea, forty-five miles away.