{"id":45841,"date":"2024-08-04T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-04T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/3b7feb21-b0ba-4b6a-b7f5-76a3d3b38ef5"},"modified":"2024-08-04T16:07:17","modified_gmt":"2024-08-04T14:07:17","slug":"drunk-conductors-knock-kneed-dancers-greedy-diners-15-famous-pieces-of-music-that-were-first-night-flops","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/drunk-conductors-knock-kneed-dancers-greedy-diners-15-famous-pieces-of-music-that-were-first-night-flops\/","title":{"rendered":"Drunk conductors, knock-kneed dancers, greedy diners: 15 famous pieces of music that were first-night flops…"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By <\/p>

Published: Sunday, 04 August 2024 at 14:00 PM<\/p>

\n\n

Read on to discover the first-night flops that became huge successes…<\/strong><\/p>

The best Judges allowed it to be the most finished piece of Musick,\u2019 glowed The Dublin Journal<\/i> in 1742. \u2018Words are wanting to express the exquisite Delight it afforded to the admiring crowded Audience.\u2019<\/p>

That \u2018most finished piece of Musick\u2019 was Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/i><\/a><\/strong>, whose first-night audience thrilled to its rousing Hallelujahs in the same way as they do today. But not all great works have enjoyed the same fortune. Drunk conductors, knock-kneed dancers, greedy diners \u2013 all these and more have turned premieres into a nightmares. Bizet\u2019s Carmen<\/i> offended polite society. Elgar\u2019s Dream of Gerontius <\/i>was too difficult. Bernstein\u2019s Candide<\/i> wasn\u2019t funny enough. <\/p>

It seems composers just can\u2019t win. Or can they? Sometimes it just takes time and patience \u2013 every one of the 15 works here was a flop on its first night, only to go on to huge success. <\/p>

1. First-night flops: Bizet Carmen<\/i> <\/h2>

Paris\u2019s Op\u00e9ra-Comique, which commissioned Carmen<\/i>, specialised in staging lightly moralistic works. But what they got from Bizet<\/a><\/strong> was an opera about promiscuous cigarette girls who liked a fight. Audiences were outraged and the opera was a disaster. The French composer died believing he\u2019d written a dud. Tchaikovsky<\/a><\/strong> predicted it would one day be the most popular opera in the world, but then he knew a thing or two about flops\u2026<\/p>

  • Bizet\u2019s Carmen: What to listen to next<\/a><\/strong><\/li>
  • Five essential works by Bizet<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>

    Recommended recording of Bizet Carmen: Elina Garan\u010da, Roberto Alagna, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & Chorus\/Yannick N\u00e9zet-S\u00e9guin; dir. Richard Eyre (New York, 2010)<\/i><\/strong> <\/p>

    • Buy from Amazon<\/a><\/strong><\/li>
    • Read full review<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>

      2. Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 <\/h2>

      If you count a premiere as also being the first play-through of a work, then few can have gone as badly as Tchaikovsky<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Piano Concerto No. 1<\/a><\/strong>. The ink was still wet when the composer showed the score to Nikolai Rubinstein. Tchaikovsky was hoping the pianist would give the first performance so rattled through the first movement to demonstrate it. At the end, the silence was deafening, as Tchaikovsky recollected: \u2018Not a single word! Rubenstein was amassing his storm.\u2019 Indeed he was. He declared the concerto<\/a><\/strong> \u2018worthless and unplayable\u2019.<\/p>