I link them together myself, but Robeson was many, many different things. He possessed a brilliant instrument, but did not do much opera.

Once in a while, I try to sneak in something less known anyway.

If you try to do that in pop music - to play only rare show tunes, for example - people don't come.

I was very young at the time, and I mainly appreciated their vocal qualities, even though I was already living as they did - as black performers in a white world.

Even in today's opera world, the position of the black tenor is problematic.

I listen constantly to classical music and I find that stretches my imagination. I listen to some contemporary and even cutting-edge things.