Hector Berlioz-Part 12
Adelina Patti requested him to write something in her album. He wrote: Oportet pati (one must suffer!) and as she asked him what it meant, he answered "it was kitchen Latin and meant: Apportez le pate (bring on the pie!")
When his opera The Trojans was first
produced a friend came to him confidentially and told him. "Old fellow, do
something to please me - suppress 'Mercury.' Those wings on his head and his
heels are really comical. No one saw anybody with wings on their heels."
"Ah, you have seen people with wings on their shoulders? I have not, but I
can quite understand that wings in unexpected places are awkward."
Adelina Patti was a great favorite with Berlioz, "I went to hear that delicious little Patti sing Martha the other day," he writes: "When I came out I felt creepy all over. I told the little prodigy that I would forgive her making me listen to such platitudes."
"Certain things should never be said, and still less should they be written," he used to say.
Now for a resume of Berlioz's life and the elements of his success:
Pertinacity is his aim to become a musician in spite of all obstacles and disappointments.
Pertinacity in striving to obtain the Prix de Rome in spite of four consecutive failures.
Pertinacity in striving to become famous and conquer the heart of beautiful Henrietta Smithson.
Battle royal with public, critics and musicians of the old school during his whole career.
Mastering of orchestration upon a never before attempted scale.
The Etude Magazine September 1919