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Screenwriter Questions Whether Tchaikovsky Was Gay, Sparking Furor in Russia
NYT ^ | 8/23/13 | SOPHIA KISHKOVSKY

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: tchaikovsky
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To: Borges

The real question should be is Putin gay?
He’s always getting photographed half dressed.
Usually in photos insuring he looks manley instead of like a 12 year old little girl like obammy.


41 posted on 08/30/2013 4:22:40 PM PDT by Joe Boucher ((FUBO) ( Hey Rubio, eat pooh pal))
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To: Borges
We studied his 6th Symphony - the "Pathetique." It was called the "Death of Romanticism."

The intense musical "sobbing" is almost unbearable and was attributed to his unhappiness with his homosexuality.

T's 6th was contrasted with Beethoven's Fifth as the "Birth of Romanticism" for its positive, triumphant musical conclusion.

42 posted on 08/30/2013 5:12:52 PM PDT by FroggyTheGremlim (Palin was right (again)!)
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To: Borges

Tchaikovsky was without a doubt one of the greatest composers - on par with Brahms and Verdi. Personally, while I find much of his music beautiful, there is a hysterical element to it that fairly screams “I’m a closet gay composer.” Even in those passages that are his most muscular there’s a flouncy feminine aspect that shines through. Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner...their music, even in the most tender of passages, seems to echo the voice of a men who like women.


43 posted on 08/31/2013 9:02:38 AM PDT by Sirius Lee (All that is required for evil to advance is for government to do "something")
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To: Sirius Lee

That’s funny because Wagner was accused of being overly feminine...as was Mozart.


44 posted on 08/31/2013 4:45:44 PM PDT by Borges
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To: Borges

Tchaikovsky was gay, and it does not go with current Putin’s national meme to have Tchaikovsky gay... Houston we have a problem.


45 posted on 09/01/2013 8:00:20 AM PDT by BigEdLB (Now there ARE 1,000,000 regrets - but it may be too late.)
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