For discussion: What if Tchaikovsky could have come out of the closet?

Age old question... if you remove the suffering from the life of an artist, is there still art?

Probably not, I would think, if suffering is their "muse". I think the underlying issue is: what motivates them to write/paint/sculpt/compose? If it's suppressed anger, then "coming out" might indeed take away the passion. But if the motivation is something else, then it might have made his life easier, but would not have affected his work.

IMO :)

Thwarted passion has brought us so very much art.

Your give us something to think about, Lynn G. I guess I have to wonder if elements of celebration or sheer joy would have been more obviously present. Maybe he would have searched for different inspiration and Eugene Onegin wouldn't have reached the stage.

I think that as many knew how he was, well at least his friends, there would be no change, other that he might have dressed more flamboyantly.

I think Swan Lake would have been more camp.

He was gay?

First, thanks for the link and the mention, Julia. Next, I'm in total agreement that classical music has passion and vitality - I will go one step farther and say that in my opinion classical music has more passion and vitality than any other musical style in existence.

Undoubtedly Tchaikovsky suffered because of his homosexuality, and we benefit from that in his works. We've been gifted throughout the years with the likes of Bernstein, Cole Porter, and other musicians who channeled their sexuality into masterpieces that will be appreciated throughout the ages.

By the way, did you see the Met Live in HD production of Eugene Onegin in the movie theater? It was fantastic, really excellent!

I'm with Dorothy on the supreme expressiveness of "classical" music.

While the romance of the "suffering artist" has been with us since the Romantic Era, I am not sure that a better-adjusted Tchaikovsky would produce music of less intensity or brilliance.

Different subjects, different themes, maybe.
But sexual orientation or sexual ambiguity is not the only circumstance that created profound alienation and discouragement among thoughtful and deeply-committed people of the 19th Century in eastern Europe and Russia.


Great article.

Julia, funny you should bring up the subject of Tchaikovsky, I just wrote a little prose about him a couple of days ago. Not exactly on topic, but here it is anyways.

"Pyotr Ilyich Dream"

She put her poems out there,
For all to see
And along came,
Tchaikovsky, believe you me
He spoke in her ear of ballet suites
Of his dreams incomplete
She blushed deeply red, it's said,
He'd gone to her head
The swans swam by, the nutcracker,
Cried... sleeping beauty looked like,
She had volunteered to die
Yet throughout this dream,
Pyotr's music did scream,
Of the beauty that can torment a,
Genius
She wept, as she was swept,
Up beside him
Sadly she shared his eternal joy
Oh boy! Oh boy, oh boy... she thought
It is difficult to imagine anything more depressingly elegant,
It would seem,
Than Pyotr's dream

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 1840 – 1893

Regards,
Mike

You're right about that rickbb, it was known among his friends. But I guess I'm asking if you think his work would have been markedly different were he living completely openly. Think he would have pursued the same themes?

Oh, Frick [laughing despite myself]

Yeah, Jesse - Can anyone point us to a really good/trusted online biography of Tchaikovsky?

Whew, Dorothy H. serves the challenge! She says, "I will go one step farther and say that in my opinion classical music has more passion and vitality than any other musical style in existence." Ohhh boy. I can't sidestep around your examples, though. Funny how pressure makes makes diamonds, isn't it?

To answer your question unfortunately I did not make it. I noticed that Il Trittico is coming up on April 28th, 2007 - anyone going to that one? We'll have to kick off another discussion for that operatic hat trick.

Glad you joined in, Peter Wimsey. You make a very excellent point about the rest of the social structure of that time. Maybe we should look more closely at the political pressure?
o 0 (maybe that should be Lord Peter Wimsey? Nice hat tip to an expert - albeit fictional - of classical music)

Mike! Man, I did NOT know. We've got a meme, eh? And you published it right here on Gather - I'm sorry I missed it the first time 'round. Gorgeous.

Julia, yes, I'll be at Il Trittico at the Brooklyn Center location. It'll be our fourth in the series (well, The First Emperor was an encore presentation). I'm already looking forward to [hopefully] an expanded season next year. Interestingly - we noticed a predominance of the elderly at Eugene Onegin, but I was happy to see a definitely younger crowd at The Barber of Seville last week. The neat part of these HD performances in the movie theatres is that you hear things (Domingo being prompted, e.g.!) that you wouldn't hear if you were there in person, plus you get nice intermission interviews with the lead singers - and then there are the great close-up camera shots during the opera. Wonderful, I highly recommend attending. (Plus you can go in your blue jeans and eat popcorn!)

Interesting to read this thread (especially for those of us here at MPR)!

For Tchaikovsky bios: there's one at Wikipedia, natch, and also a good one at the Met Opera.

A few years back, Tchaikovsky was in the headlines with claims that his death was somehow suicidal, and related to his sexual orientation, and the real story had been held back. . . both of these bios do a good job of acknowledging that controversy, while also affirming that the evidence tends to support the official story (death by cholera)--less dramatic though it is.

Even in our 21st century, there is still some way to go in the acceptance of gays on an equal basis with heteros. There seem two influences in the rabid hatred, IMO: 1) religious hardline Bible teaching (though the Bible and history seem to send confused and confusing messages) and 2) fascist self-doubts re: haters own sexual orientation. History is full of prominent revered individuals, esp. in the arts who have been if not gay of that mix of masculine/feminine traits that can acknowledge to varying degrees their own identification/appreciation/attraction/love (active or closeted) for their own gender. As we witness through history, there are times when there is more tolerance and then less, it hasn't been only progress. It's amazing to me to see how much progress has been made in my time so that on national TV public figures can openly proudly proclaim their preference and lives. Hate-filled perpetrators who kill for their purported religious beliefs do not act with true teaching of religion or religion that preaches hatred and instigates that kind of violence does not foster true religious teaching, IMO.