Archives: Anekdote

John Abell was forced to sing by the threat of bears. A later tenor—Garcia—was persuaded by something even more effective: heckling. During one of Mexico’s periodic revolutions, Garcia was touring the country and decided to reach the coast at Vera Cruz and escape to calmer places. On the road he was attacked by freebooters and…

Composers don’t always enjoy jokes at their own expense—especially when the joke makes them look like plagiarists. Ruggero Leoncavallo, though, swore this one was too good not to tell. While visiting the town of Forlì, he learned that his opera *Pagliacci* (“Clowns”) was being performed. He decided to attend incognito; almost no one knew he…

Real genius isn’t afraid to take a hint—sometimes from the least expected place. In Mozart’s opera *The Marriage of Figaro*, one character is a stuttering judge. Mozart wanted the singer Michael Kelly to stutter throughout the opera—except in one beloved number, a sextet. He feared the stutter would spoil the music. Kelly pushed back. If…

Opera managers learn fast that “a cold” can be as strategic as it is medical. Ronconi and his wife sang in the same troupe. Whenever she was annoyed—cast opposite someone she disliked, or left out entirely—Ronconi would suddenly develop a mysterious throat problem. He’d send word that it was simply impossible for him to sing.…

Arcangelo Corelli once received a visit from a traveling German violinist named Strunck. After some polite conversation, the guest asked Corelli to play. Corelli obliged and did his best to impress. Then Corelli returned the courtesy and invited Strunck to play. The German performed—deliberately—like he hardly cared, and Corelli, ever gracious, complimented his bowing and…

Clothes and grooming can broadcast personality—but they’re terrible predictors of musical genius. A polished gentleman can have a musical will as strong as the wild‑haired “Beethoven type,” and a slouching, awkward figure can carry the inner life of a Mozart or a Chopin. If you like stereotypes, the old masters will disappoint you. You can…

Under Oliver Cromwell, Puritan soldiers treated church organs as enemy contraptions. They tore them down, mocked them as “squeaking abominations,” melted the pipes into bullets, and even paraded through the streets blowing the rescued pipes—or pawning them for a few cups of ale. After the Restoration, cathedral services returned and organ‑building boomed. The Temple Church…

A debut can be made—or broken—by the room. Sometimes enemies organize a cabal to sink a singer. Sometimes friends (or managers) quietly stack the deck in the other direction. When the Swedish soprano Christine Nilsson was first introduced to English audiences, she was almost unknown. Her manager, Colonel Mapleson—one of the best‑known opera impresarios of…

Before 1750, musical “greatness” was often treated like a technical contest: the best composer was the one who could weave the most independent melodies into one coherent fabric. By the end of that long contrapuntal era, though, it wasn’t sheer quantity that mattered so much as how deeply a few lines were worked out—think of…

The London musician Salomon once gave violin lessons to an unusual student: King George III. One day the king hadn’t exactly impressed his teacher with practice or progress. Salomon decided to offer a “scientific” classification of fiddlers: “Your Majesty, violinists may be divided into three classes: the first are those who cannot play at all;…