Monthly Archives: December 2012

Philippe Rameau helped create the opera Hippolyte et Aricie, which was first performed in Paris in 1733. Audiences loved it; critics did not. Sarah Caldwell wanted to produce the opera in 1966, and she wanted to find the orchestra parts, … Continue reading →

When Tex Avery began working at the early Warner Brothers Cartoon Studio, he found himself in a group of other crazy people. The first time he met the other gag writers, they built a fire in the middle of the … Continue reading →

In 1975, Beverly Sills made her Metropolitan Opera debut in The Siege of Corinth, which also starred Shirley Verrett and Justino Diaz. This production was much anticipated, and Ms. Sills wondered aloud during a rehearsal whether the critics would think … Continue reading →

Richard Strauss once worked with a temperamental singer named Pauline de Ahna. In a rehearsal in which she sang the role of Elizabeth in Tännhauser, she made a mistake and he criticized her. They quarreled, and she ran to her … Continue reading →

Sergei Rachmaninoff and Frances Alda are two famous names in music. One you would especially like to hear play the piano, and the other you would especially like to hear sing. Ms. Alda, a soprano, was playing piano at a … Continue reading →

Ed McMahon worked for many years with Jerry Lewis in the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon. His daughter Claudia worked for a year with the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and she was able to let him know that yes, the money the telethon … Continue reading →

Political cartoonist Herblock once wrote his boss for a raise. In the letter, he said that he didn’t mind having a low salary, but he hated to see to see his dog looking wistfully at scraps of food. The letter … Continue reading →

One story about how “break” dancing got its name concerns Afrika Bambaataa, an African-American in the Bronx in New York City who led a gang called the Zulu Kings that was more interested in dancing than in fighting. Another gang … Continue reading →

Following a recital in Boston, Massachusetts, by soprano Marilyn Horne, a woman with a seeing-eye dog asked Ms. Horne to autograph her program. First, however, Ms. Horne asked about the seeing-eye dog and whether she could pat him. The blind … Continue reading →