Ep. 72 - Dark Inspirations Behind Music of the 19th Century

Summary

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My Victorian Nightmare — Ep. 72: Dark Inspirations Behind Music of the 19th Century

Host: Genevieve Manion
Date: December 8, 2025

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Episode Overview

Genevieve Manion delves into the macabre and emotional inspirations lurking behind the celebrated classical music of the 19th century. With her signature mix of gothic wit, historical detail, and playful morbidity, Genevieve uncovers the real-life heartaches, obsessions, and tragedies that shaped the iconic works of Paganini, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, and Beethoven. This episode is a journey through obsession, loss, social stigma, and the supernatural as seen through the lens of both composers and the era’s haunted culture.

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Main Discussion Points & Segments

1. Gothic Personal Anecdotes & Listener Connection

[01:55–03:33]

• Genevieve shares her classical music origins, including composing a symphony as a teen and her childhood ritual of pairing special outfits with records—"Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf… that would be my poofy slip with a pink top. Mozart’s Requiem… my black slip with a piece of fabric I think I was imagining was like a boa."
• Reflects lovingly on her listeners and pokes fun at Spotify Wrapped for its lack of inclusion of centuries-dead composers.

2. Debunking a Classical Myth: Beethoven’s “Fate”

[05:43–06:33]

• Genevieve unpacks the myth that the first four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony represent “fate knocking.”

  "Beethoven’s first biographer... said a lot of things Beethoven didn’t say. Scholars believe him to be wholly unreliable… he forged letters from Beethoven in his book, exaggerated, and even fabricated entire stories." — (06:10)

3. With Their Own Eyes: Victorian Ghost Story

[06:53–11:22]

• Reads a unique, animal-packed ghost story from the 1869 Cheshire Observer: A man wards off ghosts in animal forms with a simple invocation, eventually helping an old ghost find peace and distribute hidden treasure.
• Genevieve relates with her own account of a beloved cat’s possible ghostly visit.

  "Heavens. Ghost Rats… if all the dead rats in New York rose from the grave… I shudder to think." — (10:24)

4. The Séance Room: Victorian Spiritualism’s Creepiness

[11:31–13:40]

• Shares an 1869 Spiritualist article about a séance where a medium channels a dead girl, leaving Genevieve both amused and unsettled.

  "The idea of a grown woman sitting fireside, acting like a little girl and speaking at a madcap rate is horrifying to me… This is just astounding to me. I love this era so much. It was so haunted in every imaginable way." — (13:14/13:44)

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The Dark Backstories of 19th Century Classical Music

Niccolò Paganini: The Devil’s Violinist

[14:27–16:33]

• Paganini’s virtuosity and gaunt looks inspired rumors he’d sold his soul; he was called “the Devil’s violinist” and “Rubber man.”
• After refusing last rites and being denied church burial, his corpse traveled Europe for 36 years before finally resting in Parma.

  "His dead body traveled more than I probably ever will in my life." — (16:12)

Hector Berlioz & Symphonie Fantastique: Obsession, Hallucination, and Unrequited Love

[16:33–23:22]

• Berlioz’ infatuation with actress Harriet Smithson led to his semi-autobiographical symphony, depicting an artist’s descent into hallucination and death-by-opium.
• Each movement traces obsessive love, despair, hallucinated execution, and a hellish witches sabbath where his beloved “dances with the demons” at his funeral.

  "He wrote the Symphonie Fantastique… a semi-autobiographical piece that alludes to the romantic sufferings of the artist who poisons himself with opium because the woman that he loves does not love him." — (18:57)

• Berlioz eventually married Smithson, but it lasted only two years; she died in debt and ill.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky & Swan Lake: Duality and Despair

[23:52–32:22]

• Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake became a code during regime upheavals, often played on Russian TV during times of uncertainty.
• Tchaikovsky’s struggle with society’s condemnation of his homosexuality and deep depression is mirrored in the ballet’s themes of double life, hopeless yearning, and tragic ending.

  "The White Swan symbolizes purity, innocence, and yearning for freedom… The Black Swan symbolizes deception, seduction, and social danger. These themes closely reflect his internal double life." — (27:46)

• His possible suicide via cholera remains debated.

  "Some scholars believe that Tchaikovsky infected himself on purpose as a suicide. He drank cholera-infected water… There were postings everywhere to boil all drinking water." — (31:38)

Frédéric Chopin & the Raindrop Prelude: Illness and Nightmares

[32:58–40:45]

• Chopin, always ill and emotionally fragile, describes feeling “an indefinable torment… full of presentiments, uneasiness, nightmares…”

  "Outwardly I am gay… but at the root of my being I am suffering an indefinable torment… I long to live as much as to die." — Chopin (33:02)

• While on a miserable trip in Mallorca with writer George Sand, Chopin hallucinated his own drowning; this vision became the haunting Raindrop Prelude.

  “He saw a vision of himself drowning in a lake with heavy ice, icy sleet, and raindrops… and when he awoke, he began to write the Raindrop Prelude…” — (39:06)

• Chopin’s heart was removed after death and sent to Warsaw to honor his request that he not be buried alive.

Ludwig van Beethoven: Tragedy, Defiance, and Triumph

[40:45–46:51]

• Beethoven’s increasing deafness, isolation, and depression—he wrote a suicide letter but never went through with it, feeling a duty to continue composing.
• The Moonlight Sonata and other works are linked directly to his personal heartbreaks and struggles.
• The Seventh Symphony’s second movement is interpreted as a march toward unwinnable battles, mirroring his own struggles.
• The Ninth Symphony, written when deaf and bleakly isolated, sets Schiller’s Ode to Joy—a lifelong dream.

  "Despite all of his suffering… he decided to make this love of life and joy the inspiration for his ninth Symphony, a triumph over grief itself." — (45:28)

• At the 1824 premiere, Beethoven could not hear the rapturous applause until soloist Caroline Unger turned him to face the adoring crowd—a profoundly moving historical image.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Genevieve on Beethoven’s biographer:

  “Anton Schindler said a lot of things that Beethoven didn’t say… he even fabricated entire stories about his life that people who actually did know him contradicted entirely.” — (06:10)

• On Victorian Spiritualism:

  "The idea of a grown woman sitting fireside, acting like a little girl and speaking at a madcap rate is horrifying to me. …This era was so haunted in every imaginable way." — (13:14/13:44)

• On Paganini’s funeral saga:

  “His dead body traveled more than I probably ever will in my life.” — (16:12)

• On Berlioz's obsession:

  “I don't know if he wrote this hoping that she would hear it and be worried that he'd try to kill himself with opium if she didn't reciprocate his feelings. …Settle down, tiger.” — (21:31)

• On Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake:

  "The White Swan, though, is cursed, trapped in a body not truly her own. And this character is often described by scholars to be an expression of Tchaikovsky's disgust with himself, his shame and his fear that he is monstrous." — (28:27)

• Chopin on his own suffering:

  “Outwardly I am gay, meaning happy, but at the root of my being I am suffering an indefinable torment full of presentiments, uneasiness, nightmares… I long to live as much as to die.” — Chopin (33:02)

• Genevieve on Beethoven’s 9th:

  “He decided to make this love of life and joy the inspiration for his ninth Symphony, a triumph over grief itself.” — (45:28)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• [03:55] Main topic introduction
• [05:43] Debunking the "fate knocking" myth about Beethoven
• [06:53] With Their Own Eyes ghost story segment
• [11:31] The Séance Room: Victorian séance anecdote
• [14:27] Paganini: The Devil’s Violinist
• [16:33] Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and obsessive inspiration
• [23:52] Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and repression
• [32:58] Chopin’s Raindrop Prelude and struggles with illness
• [40:45] Beethoven—the darkness and sublime in his works
• [44:32] Beethoven’s 9th Symphony premiere, a moment of ultimate triumph

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Tone & Style

Genevieve’s tone is intimate, witty, and macabre with flourishes of personal vulnerability and dark humor. She speaks directly to the “spooky enthusiasts” in her audience, often exposing the unsettling truths beneath cultural legends and high art, while maintaining a sense of both reverence and cheeky irreverence.

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Summary Takeaways

• Many 19th-century masterpieces are rooted in the real trauma, eccentricity, and despair of their composers.
• Victorian society itself was entangled in macabre fascinations, both musically and culturally.
• The episode balances grisly gothic storytelling with musical analysis, correcting myths and drawing unexpected connections.
• Genevieve’s skill is to weave together historical context, psychological insight, and personal narrative, making the remote lives of composers and Victorians feel immediate, unsettling, and vividly human.

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Transcript

[A]

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[D]

Hello and welcome to My Victorian Nightmare. I'm your host Genevieve Mannion, and I'm here to talk about mysterious deaths, morbid fascinations, disturbing stories, and otherwise spooky events from the Victorian era. Because to me, there's just something especially.

[E]

Intriguing, creepy, and oddly comforting about horror.

[D]

And mayhem from the 19th century. So listener discretion is advised.

Hello friends and welcome to this, my 72nd episode. I hope that you had a fabulous week. So many of you sweethearts posted that.

[E]

I was your number one podcast on your Spotify Wrapped.

[D]

That was so lovely to see.

[E]

My personal Wrapped was one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life. Literally none of my top artists were less than 300 years old. I was surprised that my listening age was only 83, though maybe that metric.

[D]

Is limited only to mortal ages.

[E]

The whole thing was clearly not designed for vampires. It was nice to feel like a.

[D]

Spring chicken again though, if only for a moment.

Okay, let's race through Haunted Housekeeping and get to today's torturously grim, marvelously macabre and musical meat. Sure.

[E]

Thank you so much for rating the.

[D]

Show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Thank you for your comments that I love so dearly. Thank you to those of you who have joined the fan coven by clicking the link in the show description or by going to my victoria victoriannightmare.com those of you who subscribe are the reason why I can continue to make the show. Without you, I would not be able to continue. So if you would like to support the show and receive it ad free along with Witchy and true Crimey content. Again. Go to myvictorianightmare.com to find out how. Oh, and just a little reminder that you can gift an ad free subscription to a friend on Patreon. So if you have any super cool friends with spooky tastes, that might be a nice gift for the holidays. And you can find all of my merch as [e-mail].

[F]

John Legend, Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello and Alanis Morissette star in the MGM Original series Words and Music. Iconic artists share intimate performances and the stories behind the songs. New episodes, Sundays on mgm.

[D]

Okay, for you today, dear listener, I will be discussing a topic that is very near and dear to my heart. The dark, macabre, heart wrenching and fascinating inspirations for classical music. Pieces from the 19th century, from Beethoven to Berlioz. Pieces of music that we all know we've maybe heard in movies, studied in.

[E]

School, or if you're like me, you listen to every day of your life. Believe it or not, I actually wrote.

[D]

My very first and only symphony at age 14.

[E]

I started writing it at 14.

[D]

It was performed when I was 16.

[E]

My mother introduced me to classical music when I was like a toddler and I was obsessed. I had very specific outfits that would.

[D]

Go with each of my classical records. Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. That would be my poofy slip with a pink top. Mozart's Requiem.

[E]

That was my black slip with a piece of fabric that I think I was imagining was like a boa.

[D]

Suffice it to say, each required a.

[E]

Different outfit and I would sit under the dining room table in my very special outfit.

[D]

Once I placed the needle on the.

[E]

Record and I would listen. Why I needed to be under the dining room table, I don't remember. But I decided to sit under my own dining room table recently to try to jog my memory to Mozart's Requiem. And I gotta say, it hits different hard to put my finger on why. But ours is not to reason why.

[D]

Ours is but to do and die.

[E]

Today.

[D]

I want to share with you the dark stories behind some of the most magnificent pieces of music ever written and correct a few misconceptions.

[E]

For example, you may have heard that the first four notes of Beethoven's fifth.

[D]

Are fate knocking.

[E]

Beethoven's first biographer said that he said that directly to him. Only thing is, his first biographer, Anton Schindler, said a lot of things that Beethoven didn't say. Scholars believe him to be wholly unreliable and in fact believe he was just.

[D]

Trying to appear as if he knew.

[E]

Beethoven intimately, when he didn't really, he was just trying to look like he had cool friends. He forged letters from Beethoven in his book, he exaggerated, and he even fabricated entire stories about his life that people who actually did know him contradicted entirely.

[D]

So suffice it to say, despite the.

[E]

Fact that those notes certainly feel like.

[D]

The knock of fate, Beethoven likely did not say that. We will discuss so many more fascinating facts and haunting backstories to the 19th century's most wonderful music. But first, let us have our first segment with their own eyes.

Where I share with you the personal haunting accounts of petrified Victorians.

[E]

This article is one of the most unpredictable ghost stories I think I have ever read on this show. I have never read another one like.

[D]

It or heard another one like it. It is the third installment of the article called A Budget of Ghost Stories that I've been reading the last few weeks from the Cheshire observer, an 1869 volume. And it reads. A Liverpool gentleman had purchased a house, Cheshire, which enjoyed the reputation of being haunted. No one dared live in the place, so general was the belief in supernatural manifestations. The purchaser of the estate, by the promise of capital pay, at length induced a steady pious man to sleep in the house. The new steward, for so we will call him, took up his abode in the tumbled down old place, retiring to rest at night not. Not without vague apprehensions as a safeguard against evil spirits. He left a fire in the grate, the candle burning, and a Bible beneath his pillow. How uncomfortable. Naturally enough, sleep did not come readily. As the steward lay watching, listening and thinking. The door opened and in walked a large black dog. The animal made no sign or sound, but went to the hearthrug and curled his himself up beside the fire. The hero of the story said that he felt no alarm, protected, we suppose, by a consciousness of virtue. Solemnly prefacing his words with the invocation here adjured the visitor. I never did you any harm, nor will you me. No sooner had he said the all powerful words that the dog rose and walked from the room.

[B]

Room.

[D]

After the disappearance of the dog, a troop of rats entered, which were addressed by the courageous watcher in the same manner as the previous mysterious visitor. Thereupon the rats disappeared.

[E]

After them a lion majestically stalked into the room.

[D]

Then, for the first time, the heart.

[E]

Of the steward began to sink within him.

[D]

But mustering his courage, he again repeated, repeated the invocation and following words with the same happy result. For the lion turned tail and disappeared. After the lion came an old man to whom the steward repeated the formula which had served so effectually. Thereupon the old man spoke, saying that he had long waited for one with the courage to listen. Directing the steward to get out of bed and take his knife, he pointed to a place in the wall and requested him to strip away the paper. The man obeyed, and a secret cupboard stood revealed. The old man pointed to a corner of the cupboard and said that a sum of money was hoarded there. He named the rightful owners and directed the steward to divide it justly among them, telling him to take about £50 for his trouble. Having done this, the old man said, my spirit will now have rest, and disappeared. The steward found the money in the spot indicated, divided it among the rival owners, reserving the £50 for himself. The recipients of the money at this.

[E]

Very day are living in Chester.

Heavens. Ghost Rats if all of the dead rats in New York City rose from the grave, the pizza rats, the cigarette rats, and all of the other rats that have come and gone, I shudder to think. You may or may not be familiar with the pizza rat or cigarette rat. They're famous around these parts. But I love the concept of animal ghosts in general. I had an experience once where after my little Franny Pants passed away, she was a little orange cat.

[D]

I felt her jump up onto my.

[E]

Bed and spin around the way that she would every night. I was half asleep, and I know it could have just been like a projection, like a dream maybe, similar to what happens when I have sleep paralysis. Like I can actually feel hands on me, which is so messed up. But this was such a sweet, glowing, gentle experience. Who can say if it was her coming to say that she was okay?

[D]

But that's certainly how it felt. Okay, let us make our way to the seance room.

Where we discuss the.

[E]

Goings on in the Spiritualist society of the 1800s. This article from the Spiritualist of 1869 is not intended to be terrifying, but it really, really is, and it reads.

[D]

Mr. R. Pearse first had evidence of the truth of spiritualism in the January of this year through a good trance medium, Mrs. John Olive. While he was present, Mrs. Olive passed into the trance state and letting down her back hair, she motioned him to a low seat in front of the fire, then sat down by his side and chatted to him at a madcap rate. Every now and then, calling him Dickie, Mr. Olive asked Mr. Pierce whether he knew what it all meant. He said, yes. My little sister, before she died, was in the habit of sitting like this and playing with me nearly every Sunday. Afterwards, while in her normal state, Mrs. Olive's hand was moved by spirit influence and she drew a picture of the front of Mr. Pierce's early home in Cornwall. There were three windows above and two below with a door in the corner. The bottom windows had a few large panes of glass and the upper windows many small ones. A creeping plant growing up the front of the house was also represented, and a willow tree as well as shrubs and a garden path were all drawn in the proper places. Since then he has followed up the subject and is now the Honorary secretary to the St. John's association of Spiritualists and Clerkenwell.

[E]

End quote. The idea of a grown woman sitting fireside, acting like a little girl and speaking at a madcap rate is horrifying to me. And the fact that the dude was like, ah yes, she's possessed by my sister. It's cool. Totally cool. This is just astounding to me. I love this era so much.

[D]

It was so haunted in every imaginable.

[E]

Way that folks would see blood curdling stuff like this and were totally desensitized to it.

[D]

Marvelous. Okay, let's now discuss the dark and disturbing inspirations behind the 19th century's most wonderful music. My main references for today are a.

[E]

Cross Eyed Pianist.com article written by Walter.

[D]

Simmons Witt, a Guardian.com article by Dela.

[E]

Alberge, and numerous Wikipedia articles.

[D]

But you can find these and all of my many references in the show notes. First, let's begin with a dark chocolate.

[E]

Appetizer, a quick fun fact about a.

[D]

Particular composer of this era. Then we will dive in deeper to the others. Did you know that composer and violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini was so brilliant at.

[E]

Playing the violin that many people honestly.

[D]

Believed that he had sold his soul to the devil?

[E]

He was often referred to as the Devil's violinist. He was also pretty, gangly and thin with sharp cheekbones. He was also nicknamed Rubber man because of his lanky appearance by, let's be honest, people who were likely intimidated as.

[D]

Hell by his talent. He could play 12 notes a second, making him one of the fastest violinists in recorded history. People were so certain that his talents were were demonic that he was harassed and even mobbed in streets.

[E]

He died of syphilis after trying for years to cure it with mercury and opium.

[D]

On his deathbed he refused to believe that he was actually dying, so he turned a Catholic priest away. When his family asked him to come read his last rites, he died before they were.

[E]

And because of this and also his.

[D]

Demonic reputation The Church refused to allow him to be buried in a Catholic cemetery.

[E]

His poor dead body was carted around Europe for nearly 36 years. His corpse would be temporarily housed in.

[D]

Various locations between France and Italy.

[E]

He was placed in a leper house in a cement vat and even set a sail on a ship along the Riviera. His dead body traveled more than I probably ever will in my life.

[D]

His family appealed to the Pope himself to allow him to be buried in.

[E]

A Catholic cemetery, and luckily Pope Gregory XVI allowed it.

[D]

He was finally buried in Parma in.

[E]

1876, but then reinterred in another cemetery in Parma in 1896. Oh, so utterly heartbreaking.

[D]

Okay, let's now move on to the disturbing inspiration for Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. It is the second movement of his Opus 14 that we all know. A great graceful, elegant waltz with harp and soaring strings. The kind of piece you can just see when you close your eyes. The spinning gowns, the gentleman taking the lady's hands high in the air, the other tightly around corseted waists.

[E]

Let's discuss this composer and this unsuspectingly twisted piece.

[D]

Hector Berlioz was a French romantic composer born in 1803. He was expected to follow his father into the medical profession, and he did.

[E]

Get a medical degree before defying his.

[D]

Family and taking up a profession as a composer. From a young age he exhibited obsessive qualities, and at the age of 12.

[E]

He fell in love or infatuation with.

[D]

His 18 year old neighbor, Estelle Debouf. His earliest attempts at music composition were.

[E]

Mostly odes to her, and in fact, he would say that he never really got over that crush.

[D]

Although no romantic relations ever happened between he and Estelle, when he grew and.

[E]

Went to his medical college, he was simply repulsed by dissecting bodies. But he stayed in medical school for.

[D]

One reason, primarily to take advantage of the cultural and musical life of Paris. He visited the two Paris opera houses often and immersed himself in the scene.

[E]

He graduated medical school and then immediately.

[D]

Enrolled in music school, much to his family's disapproval. It was here that he also studied Elizabethan English, specifically Shakespeare, and developed a full blown obsession with a Shakespearean actress named Harriet Smithson.

[E]

His biographer described this obsession as, quote, emotional derangement.

[D]

He hounded and pursued, pursued her, writing.

[E]

Her love letters, coming to all of her performances, but she refused, understandably, to even meet him. I'm assuming she may have had some kind of security detail preventing him from.

[D]

Getting anywhere near her. This obsession of his inspired him to.

[E]

Write the Symphonie Fantastique, a semi autobiographical.

[D]

Piece that alludes to the romantic sufferings.

[E]

Of the a gifted artist who poisons himself with opium because the woman that.

[D]

He loves does not love him.

[E]

He wrote detailed program notes about the.

[D]

Meaning of each movement, adding a fifth movement, which is not traditional, to the four movement structure of the classical symphony.

[E]

He was actually emulating Beethoven. There.

[D]

Beethoven added a fifth movement to his pastoral symphony.

[E]

The first movement is called Reveries, in other words, passion daydreams and the music scores. The first time that the artist lays.

[D]

Eyes on the beautiful woman and he instantly falls madly in love with her. The next movement is the music at a ball where he is watching her and being tossed uncontrollably emotionally by her beauty obsession solidifying.

[E]

In the third movement, he focuses on.

[D]

His fears of betrayal.

[E]

Betrayal from a woman who isn't even his yet.

[D]

He imagines himself lying in a field. It's a pastoral scene, a beautiful place. But he can't shake the fear that.

[E]

This object of his obsession may desert him. P.S. all the while this woman is just like living her life somewhere, completely unaware that she's the object of this guy's obsession. And in the fourth movement, the artist.

[D]

Realizes that this woman likely wants.

[E]

Wants nothing to do with him. So he drinks opium and he has horrible hallucinations.

[D]

He imagines that he is being led to an execution, to a guillotine, in fact.

[E]

The fourth movement is called the March to the Scaffold. And he witnesses his own guillotining in.

[D]

A wild fever opium dream.

[E]

Finally, in the fifth movement, he essentially is in a strange kind of hell that is also his funeral.

[D]

And this movement might also sound familiar. It was used as the main theme of the film score for the Shining.

[E]

Still in an opium coma, he sees.

[D]

Himself in a horrible circle of ghosts, sorcerers, witches and monsters all together at his funeral. A dark Sabbath.

[E]

And just when he is receiving his.

[D]

Damnation, who shows up but his obsession?

[E]

The woman arrives and she starts dancing around with all of the other demons and monsters and ghosts and witches to celebrate the artist's death. And that's the end. I don't know if he wrote this hoping that she would hear it and.

[D]

Be worried that he'd try to kill himself with opium if she didn't reciprocate his feelings.

[E]

It kind of sounds like that, but it's also another kind of messed up message that he feels like she would celebrate his death. Death and is evil like. And you'd be happy, wouldn't you that I'd be damned for all eternity because of you. Settle down, tiger.

[D]

Now.

[E]

Luckily, in reality, Berlioz did not drink opium. He just relentlessly bothered Smithson until she agreed to marry him while he was married to another woman. By the way, he had already married.

[D]

A woman named Marie Moke.

[E]

He left her to marry Smith Smithson and the marriage only lasted two years. Smithson had a terrible season at the theater Italienne and it's likely that she was very much in debt and this is what motivated her interest in Berlioz. He was not rich. He had times of great success and times of just getting by, but he was doing better than how she was doing.

[D]

After those two years, Harriet was resenting his celebrity.

[E]

Despite the fact that he was not.

[D]

Making a lot of money, he was still very well known. In 1841, she began to drink heavily and they became estranged. She died in 1862 at age 48.

[E]

And two years later, Berlioz reached out.

[D]

To his very first obsession, Estelle, who.

[E]

He had had a crush on since he was 12.

[D]

She was now widowed at the age.

[E]

Of 67 and they actually kind of got together.

[D]

Not romantically, but they visited one another every summer until he his death in 1869.

[E]

He tripped and fell on rocks in.

[D]

Nice and from then he wasn't well. It's likely that he had a stroke and that is what caused the fall. He died at age 65.

[B]

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[D]

Now let's discuss the heartbreaking influence behind Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. Interesting fact. Since the 80s when political upheaval or turmoil has arisen in Russia, their state.

[E]

TV stops playing anything other than Swan Lake on a loop.

[D]

This first happened in 1982 when Leonid Brezhnev died. The same happened when other state leaders died as well. And in 1991 when Communists attempted to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev. It has been said that this was.

[E]

A Stalin tactic, allowing Soviet leadership time to plan messaging about what is occurring and to soothe the masses, signaling something is going down. But everyone keep quiet and just watch the ballet.

[D]

It happened again when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, but as a symbol of protest against the war. The only independent news outlet, TV Rain.

[E]

Was shut down because of their public.

[D]

Opposition to the war and to signal to viewers that they were being silenced. Tchaikovsky was a composer in the romantic period of classical music, and he was the first Russian composer to make a lasting impression internationally.

[E]

So many of his works are straight bangers.

[D]

The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, Romeo and Juliet in his opera Eugene Onegin is still very popular to this day, but Swan Lake is perhaps his very most famous piece. He was born in 1840 and he grew to be a very sensitive and emotional child. In adulthood, he was prone to immense angst, self doubt and depression.

[E]

The next time that you suffer from.

[D]

Imposter syndrome, just consider yourself among Tchaikovsky's pantheon. He also was forced to repress his homosexuality. As a gay man living in 19th century Imperial Russia, he experienced severe self loathing and a constant fear of being discovered. He married a woman named Antonia Miliukova in hopes that it would cure him of his homosexuality. But that is not how that works.

[E]

The marriage lasted only 10 weeks.

[D]

He drank heavily smoked, gambled, and was actually terrified of the spotlight. He had a near debilitating phobia that his head would fall off while conducting. So he was known to hold his head with one hand and conduct with the other.

[E]

Folks must have just thought it was like a quirk of his conducting style.

[D]

Not until almost the end of his life did he conquer this phobia, but he did.

[E]

In 1891, he was finally able to.

[D]

Hold his head high at his inaugural concert at Carnegie Hall. The extent to which his struggle with homosexuality affected his mental health musical writing is debated by scholars, but frankly, his homosexuality was rabidly censored from Russian history.

[E]

And it's actually quite remarkable that so.

[D]

Many letters and documents in which he describes his struggles still exist at all and weren't destroyed. In a letter to his brother, who was also gay, he wrote of a night walk in Italy saying, at nine o' clock I felt like going for a walk and went out.

[E]

Some rufiani pimps, you know the kind.

[D]

Guessed what I was looking for and wouldn't leave me alone. The bait they were using to hook the prey, that is me, was a delightful young creature.

[E]

I had to put up some fierce.

[D]

Resistance because the bait was working, but I didn't let it get the better of me. I don't know whether they wanted to blackmail me or just screw some money out of me, but I didn't let myself get taken Taken in end quote.

[E]

It was also implied in the letters.

[D]

That this was a young gentleman, not a lady. In 1875, however, rumors were beginning to spread about his homosexuality and this caused him to sink into deep despair. Within two years, he was married to Antonina again, in hopes of forcing his sexuality out of himself and convincing others that he wasn't gay. But. But between 1875 and 1876, he wrote Swan Lake, a tale about duality. The White Swan symbolizing purity, innocence and yearning for freedom. The Black Swan symbolizing deception, seduction and social danger. These themes closely reflect his internal double life. A white public Persona and a black, dark, dark, hidden truth. The White Swan, though, is cursed, trapped in a body not truly her own. And this character is often described by scholars to be an expression of Tchaikovsky's disgust with himself, his shame and his fear that he is monstrous. It's a story of hopeless yearning that mirrors Tchaikovsky's personal cycles of desire, emotional intensity, guilt and despair. The ending is not a happy one.

[E]

The White Swan dies of grief after.

[D]

Her lover, Siegfried, is tricked into an oath of love for the Black Swan. This was the original ending. The ballet is often performed with different endings, some happy, some equally tragic, but different. The original ending is a story of bitter sadness that the White Swan could never love. She really wanted to. At this time, while writing Swan Lake, many scholars insist that he was suicidal. And the end of this story was one that Tchaikovsky saw for himself. Death was his only solution to never being able to love how and who he wanted. Now, most of this is interpretation by scholars. He did not write these notions or inspirations himself. But there is no denying that at this time of his life, his life closely mirrored the symbolism of Swan Lake. Very sadly, this ballet was not well received. While a small number of critics acknowledged the quality of Tchaikovsky's score, the majority.

[E]

Dismissed it as overly complex for ballet.

[D]

Describing it as too noisy, too Wagnerian and too symphonic.

[E]

It was also described as quote unquote, unimaginative and entirely forgettable. One of my favorite quotes of all.

[D]

Is there has never been a statue erected to a critic.

[E]

That is a quote from the composer John Sibelius, another 19th century and early 20th century Finnish composer. Although now that's actually not true anymore. There is a a statue of Roger Ebert outside of the Virginia Theater.

[D]

I still very much appreciate the sentiment though. In 1893, Tchaikovsky died tragically and very quickly from cholera.

[E]

Cholera is not a slow onset disease.

[D]

Like tuberculosis, which can take years to consume its victims. The amount of time from contraction to.

[E]

Death from cholera in this time could.

[D]

Have been as little as 24 hours. Hours.

[E]

You would die horrifyingly, profusely, vomiting with extreme diarrhea leading to fatal dehydration.

[D]

It was an absolute horror to watch a loved one die of cholera and.

[E]

Surely to die of it yourself.

[D]

Some scholars believe that Tchaikovsky infected himself on purpose as a suicide. He drank cholera infected water. There had been an outbreak in Petersburg.

[E]

Where he lived, and by this time they knew how cholera sp one way was through water. And there were postings everywhere to boil all drinking water.

[D]

He would have been aware of the warnings in this area, but he did not boil the water first. Now some theorize that he was just a serious alcoholic. It's likely that he was too drunk to think of boiling the water before drinking it.

[E]

And also there's the not so subtle fact that no one would give themselves this disease on purpose when they could die by just about any other way.

[D]

It is most likely that he drank.

[E]

The water not thinking straight, not remembering.

[D]

To boil the water.

[E]

At least that is the prevailing theory.

[D]

He is buried in Tikhvin Cemetery in St. Petersburg, Russia.

[E]

My name is Percy Jackson. Getting in trouble is like breathing for me.

[F]

The hit series returns to Disney and Hulu. The danger the camp is under is great than you can possibly imagine.

[G]

For the key to our survival, three of you must quest to the Sea of Monsters.

[E]

Let's go do the impossible.

[F]

Percy Percy Jackson and the Olympians new season two episode premiere December 10th on Disney and Hulu. Learn more at disneyplus.com whatson Let us.

[D]

Now talk about Chopin and his Raindrop Prelude and why it is is so very haunting. But first, let's allow Chopin to talk about himself. In a letter to a friend in 1831, he said, outwardly I am gay, meaning happy. But at the root of my being I am suffering an indefinable torment full of presentments, uneasiness, nightmares. When it is not insomnia. Sometimes I feel indifferent to everything and sometimes a prey to the most intense homesickness. I long to live as much as to die. And sometimes I feel a sort of complete numbness, which incidentally, is not without a certain pleasure, but which makes me feel away from everything. Then suddenly, vivid memories arise and torture me. Hatred, bitterness, a frightful mixture of unhealthy sensations which attack me and leave me exhausted. End quote. This man was very haunted. Chopin did not have a very easy life. He was born in Warsaw, Poland. A child prodigy, he is known especially for his solo piano nocturnes. From childhood, he was Always sick and in need of medical care, he couldn't eat fatty food foods like pork, and he ate so little as an adult that he weighed just under 100 pounds at his heaviest. He was prone to illness his entire life and was believed to have at some point contracted tuberculosis. But it's difficult to tell exactly when he contracted it because he was virtually sick with varying illnesses with similar symptoms all of his life. Despite his health difficulties, and unlike many of the world's most famous classical composers, he was very well respected in his day by the public and his contemporaries like Franz Liszt and Robert Schumann, both good friends of his. He also made a fairly good living selling sheet music of his compositions and giving private piano lessons.

[E]

He was a huge introvert, though he.

[D]

Didn'T particularly enjoy performing concerts which were always sold out events. He wafted around the Paris and Vienna music scenes with his buddies List and Berlioz.

[E]

But he, like myself, was the kind.

[D]

Of cat that loved a little socializing but really thrived in solitude. During a stay in Vienna, he wrote to a friend, quote, it is only the various dinners, evening parties, concerts and balls that I am obliged that sustain me a little. I feel so sad, lonely and abandoned here. I have, of course, to dress for these reception receptions with a reasonably contented countenance. But I hurry back to my room where I can give rein to my suppressed emotions by sitting down at my piano, which now is only too well accustomed to the expression of all of my sufferings.

[E]

End quote. Okay, I don't know if thrived is the right word for his situation there, but I understand where he's coming from.

[D]

Apart from his respiratory and gastrointestinal health issues, he also suffered from what some experts believe to have been epilepsy or an illness that brought on what he described as fits and hallucinations. One night, when he was about to play his funeral march in concert, he stopped and quickly ran off the stage, much to the confusion of the audience. He later told a friend that just as he was beginning to play, he saw monsters, Monsters and phantoms crawling out of the piano. And he had to leave the stage at once to shake off the images that he knew were in his mind but were too terrifying to continue. Despite all of this, he met and fell in love with a French author named George Sand. That was her pen name. Her real name was Aurora Dupin. She was very short. She had large brown eyes.

[E]

Eyes and was a cigar smoker. At first he was simply repulsed by her.

[D]

But they grew on each other. He said of her, quote, I Must.

[E]

Say I was confused and amazed at.

[D]

The effect this little creature had on me. I have still not recovered from my astonishment.

[E]

And if I were a proud person, I should be feeling humiliated at having been carried away. I don't think that is a compliment.

[D]

In 1838, it was suggested by Frederick's doctors that he take a trip to Mallorca for the sake of his lungs. It was believed that the air there would help him.

[E]

It's not clear if George quit cigar.

[D]

Smoking, though, when she began seeing Frederick, but he asked her to accompany him. Traveling to Mallorca turned out to be a terrible mistake. The winter was wet and miserable, and when they arrived, the intensely Catholic people became inhospitable. When they learned that Chopin and his lady were not married, and finding accommodation was incredibly difficult. They ended up having to stay in an abandoned monastery. He visited three doctors while he was there, and he told George, quote, the three most celebrated doctors on the island have seen me.

[E]

The first said I was dead. The second said that I am dying, and the third said that I am soon going to die. This.

[D]

This was in her diary.

[E]

He was often afraid for his life.

[D]

Because of his health, but at this time, his anxiety and despair was simply at its peak. Also in her diary, she wrote that Frederick one day had a waking nightmare. She had left the monastery during a terrible rainstorm to go find food. And when she returned, Chopin was terrified, shaking. He said that. That in a waking nightmare, a hallucination, he saw a vision of himself drowning in a lake with heavy ice, icy sleet, and raindrops were falling rhythmically on his chest. And when he awoke, he began to write the Raindrop Prelude, Opus 28:15, a piece that encapsulates the terror, the despair, the pain, the hopelessness that he felt at that time. There is a video going around on social media right now of a pianist falling to pieces playing this piece in front of a large audience. It's actually beautiful to see someone so overcome by it while playing it with such perfect control. I'll try to find it and put the link in the show notes. George sand said that over time, she became less of a lover and more of a nurse for Chopin. She called him her third child. She had already had two before she met him. She also referred to him as her beloved little corpse.

[E]

Heavens.

[D]

He did, however, live another 11 years after this terrible trip. He died in 1849 at the age of only 39. His cause of death is only somewhat debated. The prevailing belief is that tuberculosis was the primary cause of death. Famously, his Last words were swear to.

[E]

Make them cut me open so that.

[D]

I won't be buried alive. A request that his sister fulfilled. She ensured that he received a full.

[E]

Autopsy where his heart was removed, preserved.

[D]

In a crystal jar and brought to Warsaw, where it was placed inside a pillar in the Holy Cross Church. His body was buried in Paris at the Pierre Lachaise cemetery. Now, finally, let us speak about Beethoven. I know he wasn't a Victorian era composer. He died just before it began in 1827, but he was composing into the 19th century.

[E]

I'm bending the rules here because it's Beethoven and just a warning.

[D]

We're going to be getting pretty dark for a few minutes here, but I promise we shall be ending, ending on a high note. We'll discuss a few pieces here. Ludwig van Beethoven was born in 1770 in Bonn, Germany, and is for good reason considered one of the very greatest composers in all of history, alongside Mozart and Bach. He began losing his hearing at only 18 years old, which he would continue to lose for the rest of his life almost entirely.

[E]

Personally, I don't listen to Beethoven unless I have some serious emotional issues that.

[D]

I want to work out his pathatique. This piece is often interpreted as reflecting Beethoven's spirit of resistance against adversity rather than invoking pity. He had many periods of severe depression and was suicidal at times, though he never attempted suicide. He did write a suicide letter though, in 1802 that wasn't discovered until after his death, where he wrote that he was so tormented by his hearing loss in this period that he wanted to end his life, but he felt that he couldn't because he still had more music to compose. And the Moonlight Sonata.

[E]

I do not understand how people can.

[D]

Listen to this while, like doing the.

[E]

Dishes, cleaning the bathroom. One of my favorite memes is imagine going through a bad breakup in 1823.

[D]

And then Beethoven drops the Moonlight Sonata. It was written as a dedication to his own love for the piano itself and to the Countess Giuletta Guicciardi, a student of his. It was also written by during a period when he was coming to terms with his worsening deafness. And the fact that although he loved the Countess, their stations in life made it impossible that they could ever be together. And the second movement of the seventh Symphony, which was performed at a benefit concert in Vienna for soldiers wounded in a Napoleonic battle, a symphony he himself considered one of his very, very best. Beethoven felt deeply betrayed by Napoleon. He wrote his Eroica Symphony as an ode to him. He believed that he wanted to Uphold liberty and equality. But when he declared himself emperor, Beethoven scratched the dedication off of the title page with such force that it ripped the paper. Beethoven didn't say much about his inspiration for this second movement of the Sense Seventh, but many interpret it as being inspired by soldiers marching to war toward a battle that they cannot win. One can hear how his own struggles likely felt to him similar to that imagery. A battle that he cannot win, but he must keep going. And if you would follow me through these curtains here at the Theater Am Que Natur, we are in the Vienna, Austria. It is May 7, 1824, and tonight is the premiere of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Now, watch your head.

[E]

We are going to duck down here.

[D]

We are behind the stage, and we're going to snuggle into this special little secret spot. Watch your step. It is rather dark, but here, help.

[E]

Me feel around the wall.

[D]

We are looking for a peephole cover. Ah, yeah, found it. This is where the music directors like to covertly come to take a look at the audience to see if they're enjoying the performance. And if you look, there are two conductors on the stage. One is Beethoven himself. The other is Michael Umlauf, the Kapellmeister of the theater. Beethoven was already known to be completely deaf at this point, but he insisted that he conduct this piece. However, the Kapellmeister was able to convince.

[E]

Him to have him there just as a backup to keep the orchestra in time. A little awkward, but it worked.

[D]

When Beethoven was 15, he first read the poem Ode to Joy by Friedrich Schiller, an ode to freedom, justice, and human happiness. He kept this poem in his heart and dreamt of putting it to music his entire life. And despite all of his suffering, losing the most precious sense a composer could have, his own ability to hear his music, he decided to make this love of life and joy the inspiration for his ninth Symphony, a triumph over grief itself. And there is a very special reason why I brought you here to this moment. Ah, now take a look.

[E]

The audience has jumped to their feet. They are throwing their hats in the air.

[D]

But you can see Beethoven, with a tear in his eye, is looking still at the performers. The contralto soloist, Caroline Unger, just signaled.

[E]

To him to turn around.

[D]

He may not be able to hear the crowd, but he can see them. Of all the moments in history that I wish I could have seen, it would have been the moment that Beethoven turned around.

If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to hear more, please please rate the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. Please leave me comments because you know, I love them so much and to directly support my show and directly enable it to continue. Join the fan [e-mail] until next time. Be kind to yourselves and I will see you in your nightmare Theirs.

[G]

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