Randy composers who had affairs − from classical intercourse image to musical assassin
They are the masters of the score − and many of history’s top classical composers have had love lives as noteworthy as their music. Such a story has been brought to the screen before, in the hit film Maestro about Leonard Bernstein, played by Bradley Cooper.
The West Side Story star had affairs with both men and women while married to wife Felicia Montealegre, played by Carey Mulligan. But Bernstein, who died in 1990 aged 72, is not the only randy composer who had a romantic rollercoaster, as we reveal here.
From French musical maestros who were clearly not good with the ladies to the story of one Russian composer that was turned into a box office smash, composers had much more raunchy lives than maybe first thought. So, here are just some of the stories of composers who get hot and heavy throughout the years.
Loco for Coco?
When Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was first performed in 1913 it caused a riot. His love life was equally raucous. In 1906 Stravinsky married his first cousin Katya against local church rules and they had two children.
After World War One he ended up in Paris, where, according to famous French designer Coco Chanel, the pair enjoyed a passionate affair, portrayed in a 2009 film starring Mads Mikkelsen and Anna Mouglalis. He continued to lead a double life away from his family, having romances with a ballerina and then dancer Vera Sudeikin, who he would marry in 1940, after they both moved to the US.
Fiery romps
French composer Claude Debussy drove women to despair. He started living with Gabrielle Dupont in 1893, but cheated on her with singer Thérèse Roger, before ditching them both to marry Dupont’s friend, model Lily Texier in 1899. Dupont attempted suicide.
Debussy then had a holiday fling with banker’s wife Emma Bardac, soon telling Lily their marriage was over − by letter. She promptly shot herself, narrowly surviving with a bullet embedded in her spine, amid the scandal Debussy and a pregnant Emma fled for Britain, eventually marrying in 1908.
Deadly passions
Renaissance composer and royal prince of the Italian town of Venosa, Carlo Gesualdo is as known for murder as music. On October 16, 1590, he caught his wife and first cousin, Donna Maria, in bed with the Duke of Andria.
The next day officials found the pair in a pool of blood. Donna Maria’s throat had been cut and the Duke, still wearing his lover’s nightgown, had been stabbed and shot. Thanks to his connections Gesualdo was never prosecuted, but became so guilt-ridden he hired servants to whip him three times a day for the rest of his life.
Bach’s brood
Virile composer Johann Sebastian Bach, known for his organ music, was married twice and sired a whopping 20 children between 1708 and 1742. seven were by his first wife Maria. After she died, the German married singer anna Magdalena who gave him another 13.
Sex symbol
With his striking looks and powerful piano playing, 19th century Hungarian composer Franz Liszt sparked “Lisztomania”. Frenzied female fans demanded locks of his blond hair, collected his used cigarette butts and, it’s said, even threw their underwear at him during concerts.
Liszt never married but had 26 serious affairs, romancing the likes of famous French courtesan Marie Duplessis, inset, racy Irish dancer Lola Montez and a Polish princess. One commentator said: “he collected princesses and countesses as other men collect rare butterflies.”
Fling cycle
The love life of controversial German opera composer Richard Wagner, known for his Ring cycle, was a merry-go-round. His first marriage to Minna Planer in 1836 saw her briefly leave him for an army officer while he conducted multiple affairs. after he fell for poet Mathilde Wesendonck, below right, Wagner’s marriage crumbled.
Next Wagner romanced Cosima von Bulow, right, herself the daughter of Franz Liszt’s mistress countess Marie d’Agoult, while she was married to a conductor. The pair later escaped to Switzerland and would eventually marry in 1870.
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