LOS ANGELES??I am nervous because there was this erroneous report,? Julie Andrews revealed in a recent interview, referring to an article which claimed she had a vocal reconstructive surgery. A botched throat procedure in 1997 silenced the lilting, sweet soprano in ?The Sound of Music? and ?Mary Poppins.?

?I was getting e-mails from everybody,? said Julie about the report which came out about a week before it was announced that she was going to have a concert at The O2, the huge London arena, on May 8. ?I have not had reconstructive surgery and I don?t sing the way I used to. I?m doing everything I can to put the word out that they shouldn?t expect that.?

So what should people who watch her in ?The Gift of Music ? An Evening with Julie Andrews? expect? ?I hope that I?ll have a few surprises up my sleeve but basically, I have about five good bass notes,? said the singer-actress, who stars with Dwayne Johnson in the comedy-fantasy, ?Tooth Fairy.? ?I can work around them pretty well. I also employ that Rex Harrison sing-speak kind of voice. I narrate a lot, tell tales, host and show a great deal of footage. The music is glorious and I am helped by five Broadway and concert artists whom I?ve grown very fond of. We are almost like a family now.?

The London concert, Julie said, is the start of a small international tour that will go to Australia and Japan later in the year.

Missing the theater stage

?Yes, I do miss it very much, especially the joy of working with a big orchestra,? Julie said of the musical theater stage. ?In London, I will be working on the stage in a wonderful concert which I did last year in the United States...I?m looking forward to the show because it?s with the London Philharmonic.?

Always a gracious interviewee, Julie explained why the show is called ?The Gift of Music?: ?It?s the gift of the old and the new. The first half is the wonderful music of Rodgers and Hammerstein as it mostly relates to me. Things that I did for them and the stories that I can tell. The second half is the new gift and that is based on a book that I wrote with my daughter called ?Simeon?s Gift.? It?s the story of a musician, a minstrel who goes out to find his fame and fortune. It has been turned into the most beautiful symphonic piece that runs about 50 minutes. I narrate it, much like ?Peter and the Wolf.??

Julie said she feels very fortunate that she?s still around, with a career that has lasted this long, sounding grateful instead of being bitter about losing her five-octave range after a supposedly routine surgery in 1997 to remove nodules from her throat. ?Careers go up and down like friendships, marriages and anything else. You cannot bat at a thousand all the time. So I?m very lucky in the films that have come my way and the fact that I love to write children?s books now and everything. I?m still learning, still trying things that I love to try. I?ve worked my whole life so it?s fun for me.?

Expounding on the values she was raised on, Julie said: ?I learned to never carp about things, to never moan, but that?s partly because in vaudeville, you just get on with it.?

Her mother and stepfather were vaudeville performers.

?That?s my background and through all kinds of adversities, that was an extremely good learning and training ground for me when I was a kid. I?m glad I went through it. It was a bit of a trial by fire but it was something that stood me in a very good stead,? she recounted.

Working with Hitchcock

While Julie is beloved to this day for her musical film classics, she did a mystery thriller, ?Torn Curtain,? with no less than the great Alfred Hitchcock. ?It was a great experience,? she recalled. ?He was very kind to me. There was a day when he was talking about a certain kind of lens that he would put on the camera for my scene. He was talking with a cameraman and I happened to say, ?I don?t know very much about lenses.? He said, ?Come with me.? He took me to his trailer and he must have spent 45 minutes drawing diagrams and saying things like, ?This lens will make your nose look very long. Don?t let anybody do that (laughter). This one will do such and such...?

?He was funny and an absolute master of control of his audience and film. He would say, ?Come and look through the camera.? I would look through. He made a beautiful Mondrian-like shot. That was his turn-on, I guess.?

Looking lovely and fit at 74, Julie said, ?My mother gave me some good genes. I do as little exercise as possible to get the most benefit possible. I don?t particularly like it. Probably the thing that has helped along the way is that I?m allergic to too much sugar so I eat desserts in moderation.?

Her latest children?s book has been on the bestseller list of the New York Times for about nine weeks now. ?It?s a wonderful, beautifully illustrated book. It?s called ?Julie Andrews? Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies.? I put some of the old songs whose lyrics I felt were poetry,? she said.

Of her marriage to director Blake Edwards and why it has endured, Julie exulted: ?We celebrated our 40th anniversary last year and both of us couldn?t believe it. We said, ?What happened to the decades?? They?re gone so quickly. Sense of humor is probably the first and foremost factor. The second thing is, and he would be the first to tell you this, that he is a darling (laughing). So put those two things together and you?ve got a good marriage.?

Email the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com.