Richard Temple Savage in Royal Opera House - between 1948 and in the beginning of the 1950's

from A voice from the Pit: Reminiscences of an Orchestral Musician, page 124:

In an early "Tristan" I had a terrible experience but the trouble was that whenever I told anyone about it they burst out laughing. I got hiccups during the second act where there is an extended solo passage for the bass clarinet, known in the profession as "the Death Leap", during King Mark's scene. It must have been sheer willpower that enabled me to space out the spasms to coincide with the places where I took a breath - and the phrases are all very long indeed. To do Rankl justice, he was very sympathetic when I first told him and it was not until he went home to tell his wife who went …   more >>
cite as

Richard Temple Savage, A voice from the Pit: Reminiscences of an Orchestral Musician (Newton Abbot, 1988), p. 124. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1431361428004 accessed: 5 December, 2024

location of experience: Royal Opera House

Listeners

Richard Temple Savage
clarinettist music librarian, writer, music librarian, Clarinetist, Writer
1909-

Listening to

hide composers
King Mark's scene from 'Tristan und Isolde'
written by Richard Wagner
performed by Covent Garden Opera Company, Karl Rankl

Experience Information

Date/Time between 1948 and in the beginning of the 1950's
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, indoors, in public

Originally submitted by iepearson on Mon, 11 May 2015 17:23:48 +0100
Approved on Sun, 20 Dec 2015 16:04:18 +0000