I am not amused.
Posted on 08/30/2013 12:23:12 PM PDT by Borges
A prominent Russian screenwriter working on a film about Tchaikovsky’s life that has just received state financing set off a firestorm this week by saying that the biopic would not focus on the composer’s sexuality because “it is far from a fact that Tchaikovsky was a homosexual.”
“Only philistines think this,” the screenwriter, Yuri Arabov, told the newspaper Izvestia of the commonly accepted view of Tchaikovsky’s sexual orientation. “What philistines believe should not be shown in films.”
Mr. Arabov, who is known for his screenplays for films by Alexander Sokurov about the inner lives of Lenin, Hitler and Emperor Hirohito, told the newspaper in an interview published Aug. 20 that the movie, which is called “Tchaikovsky” and scheduled for release in 2015, would show Russia’s most revered composer as a man who “is marked by rumors and suffers greatly from this.”
Contemporary scholars still debate how Tchaikovsky died, with some claiming that he was driven to suicide out of torment over his sexuality. For decades, the cause of death was reported as cholera.
(Excerpt) Read more at artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Classical Ping
I read he was a latent homo who never acted on his feelings. Which means he was not a homo.
Evidence is plentiful that he had dalliances with adolescent boys.
Uhm...really? Does it matter who (someone who gave us some of the most beautiful music EVER!) preferred? (Ever since that whole Dixie Chicks scandal, I don’t care about the musicians, only their music. Their music is what I’m buying, not their biography...although in some cases, ya get both!)
I always heard that he was a homosexual, but then, who cares? His work was magnificent and he didn’t wear it on his sleeve or try to get publicity because of it.
He was ashamed by it and regarded it as an aberration. It was also illegal in Czarist Russia. The point here is that this sort of whitewashing recalls Soviet tactics.
Well, what does he want to do? Dig him up out of his grave and date him?
I commend the screenwriter for doing this. Someone like Tchaikovsky should be remembered for the beautiful things he did, not for the depravity people try to tag him with to validate their own disgusting lifestyles.
Have you ever read Tchaikovsky’s letters?
The very definition of a pederast. And then there is the episode of his private pas de deux with Diaghilev, a notorious and flaming queen, in an empty theater, both wearing tutus.
I agree that this is a piece of Stalinesque revisionism.
Ya gotta admit though the 1812 Overture, all those cannons and their explosive firings, very sexual! There now that I’ve gone overboard with that, I totally agree what does a persons sexuality have to with their accomplishments, leave their personal life out of it and enjoy the music.
Diaghilev was only 21 when Tchaikovsky died. Are you thinking of Stravinsky?
T’s constant fear of his sexuality being made public was a crucial part of his life. It’s also why he married and abandoned his wife after a few weeks and had to pay her off to keep her quiet. You can’t really have a bio of the man without those elements.
I understand, but personally I can do with out the Bio and just appreciate the music, the only time I care about a persons sexuality is if they are a pedophile or get up in my face about it.
Yes...”gay” is so gay!
Leni
Perhaps. After I posted, I realized the conflict in dates. It was mentioned just last week on NPR as I was nodding off. The association with The Rites of Spring makes that seem more likely.
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