David Bruce: Create, Then Take a Break — Work – Anecdotes, ARTS, BOOKS, and Music

Work

• Because of British Broadcasting Corporation regulations, Sir Adrian Boult was forced to retire as conductor from the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1950 when he reached the age of 60. Sir Adrian resented his enforced retirement, which he regarded as being completely arbitrary. After his retirement, he accepted an invitation to serve as the orchestra’s guest conductor for a performance. At the beginning of the rehearsal, he looked at the clock and saw that its hands had stuck together. He then said, “Get the clock going, or I’ll stop the rehearsal in ten minutes’ time—when the clock says so.” BBC management took the threat seriously and removed the hands from the clock.

• We associate George Frideric Handel’s Messiah with Christmas, but during Handel’s lifetime, it was always performed during the seasons of Lent and Easter. Normally, theaters were closed during Lent, but Messiah was considered religious enough to be performed at that time. By the way, Mr. Handel was a Lutheran, although early in his career he worked as an organist in a Calvinist church. The Calvinists may have been willing to hire Mr. Handel, despite his religion, because the previous organist, Johann Christoph Leporin, frequently showed up to work drunk.

• Everyone believes that ballerinas lead a glamorous life, but it is hard work—and often low paying. Illaria Obidenna Ladré danced in the Diaghilev Ballet, where she was paid very little. She, like the other dancers, learned to brush her teeth when she was hungry but had no food to eat. By the way, Mr. Sergei Diaghilev, who was not supported by tax money, also suffered for his art. He had holes in his shoes and died with $6 in his pocket. (Many people are against the use of tax money to support the arts, but taxes are the price of civilization.)

• A man once asked R’ Pinchas of Koretz whether he would have a chance to enter the Garden of Eden, adding that in this life he had to work very hard but had nothing to show for it. R’ Pinchas asked if the man set aside time each day for studying the Torah, but the man replied that he did not. R’ Pinchas then said, “If in this world, where you labor and work so hard, you have nothing, then what do you expect to receive in the Garden of Eden, for which you are doing nothing?”

• Constance Benson (1860-1946) worked with actor Stephen Phillips in 1886, when he was no longer interested in his career. While playing Prospero in Shakespeare’s Tempest on stage, he pretended his wand was a fishing pole and dangled it over the orchestra pit. As the play proceeded, he murmured to Ms. Benson in asides which fish he had caught, and from which musical instrument he had caught them.

• When dancers Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis were touring, the towns they performed in began to blend together after a while, and sometimes they forgot where they were. Once, they reached for their tour list to find out the name of the town they were in, but they didn’t know the date, so the tour list was of no help. They ended up asking a policeman directing traffic, “Can you tell us the name of this town?”

• Richard Strauss was once shocked to hear that a former pupil had asked for a year’s leave from an orchestra in order to compose. According to Mr. Strauss, the pupil already had plenty of time to compose. Mr. Strauss reasoned that each day has 24 hours; therefore, once you take away eight hours for sleeping, and 12 hours for working, you still have four hours for composing.

• African-American opera singer Betty Allen was born in Campbell, Ohio. Her talent for hard work came in part from her mother, who during the Depression earned $30 a week as a washerwoman—a lot of money for the time. Ms. Allen says, “She had two Maytags going all the time, from six o’clock in the morning ’til midnight.”

• Gioacchino Rossini wrote and produced his opera buffa masterpiece, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, very quickly. In fact, it was composed—and rehearsed and staged—in less than a month. When Gaetano Donizetti, another fast worker, learned this, he said of Mr. Rossini, “Well, he always was lazy.”

David Bruce: Create, Then Take a Break — Work

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