When singerDennis McNeilgot a call two months ago with an invitation to sing for theQueen Elizabeth, “I couldn’t breathe,” he tells PEOPLE.
“I thought she’s seen everything,” notes the Los Angeles-based tenor. “What could I sing that would move her?”
McNeil, 58, received the invitation from Robert “Woody” Johnson, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and his wife, Suzanne, to perform at Winfield House, the official home of the Ambassador.
“We reached out to the palace for her musical tastes, and her Lady in Waiting informed us she loves show tunes,” says McNeil, “especially show tunes fromOklahoma.”
The intimate dinner, which took place last month, had about 20 guests, along with the guest of honorQueen Elizabeth. “She was lovely and radiant,” he says. “She was dressed in a silver gown that shimmered. She is an itty bitty thing, but she does not come off as itty bitty. She has such grace and strength.”
“There wasn’t a receiving line,” he recalls. “She worked her way through the room, and we stood and chit-chatted.”
“She spoke of the first opera she heard, Wagner’sTristan and Isolde,when she was 8 years old,” he says. “Her mother took her along withher sister Margaret. I don’t think it was an opera that captured her or her sister’s sense of humor. I joked with her that Wagner’s music isn’t as bad as it sounds.”
“Then I realized this wasn’t just any family outing. She later said as an aside: ‘Of course, it was the re-opening of Covent Garden, so I suppose we had to be there.’ ”
Dennis McNeil.
The conversation was casual. “At one point we were chatting about knee replacements and hip replacements,” he says laughing. “How we got there, I don’t know. I think another guest had just announced they’d gotten a hip replacement.”
“She’s a great lover of music,” he says. “She mentioned how she wished more singable songs were written today. The kind of tunes you can hum along to.”
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During the song, he was tickled to see the Queen pull outher signature purse. “She took out her lipstick,” he notes. “And as I sang, she applied a fresh coat of lipstick and I just thought ‘That is so warm and so human.’ ”
He then sangIt Had To Be You. “I’m told she was tapping her feet to that one,” he says. “Afterwards, one of the guests said that she leaned over to him and said, ‘So nice to hear real music.’ ”
The next song wasOh What a Beautiful Morning. “Alot of people in the room sang along, including the Queen,” he says. “That was really cool.”
Queen Elizabeth spotted withthesignature purse.Gareth Fuller - PA Images/PA Images via Getty
“As the car started to pull away, she gave that trademark wave through the window,” he recalls. “It was pretty phenomenal. I couldn’t sleep that night. It was a Cinderella kind of night. I never wanted the evening to end.”
source: people.com
