A voice from the Pit: Reminiscences of an Orchestral Musician

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After a quick tour of Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow and Dundee with Beecham, one night in each place staying in the best hotels, we came back to London overnight and straight into the Opera House for "Tristan" and "Lohengrin". We had started rehearsing in Dundee; I had left the parts at home and had to telegraph my mother urgently to send them on for me; they arrived in time - I doubt it they would now. Frieda Leider was the Isolde and, although I do not remember any particular excitement in that year's "Tristan", one would hear many a fascinating tale of past rivalries and hate between the prima donne [sic]. Charles Moor, the stage manager who also produced everything, told a story that particularly appealed to me. It appears that there had been on one occasion an especially deadly dispute between Frieda Leider and the artist singing the part of Bragäne, her confidante; this had culminated in the last act when Leider as Isolde, prostrate over the corpse of Tristan, was about to rise to begin the "Liebestod". The Bragäne placed her foot firmly on Isolde's train - and kept it there, so the poor woman had to sing the whole things more or less flat on her face.

excerpt from 'A voice from the Pit: Reminiscences of an Orchestral Musician' pp. 30 (211 words)

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