Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen on the set of Love with a Proper Stranger, 1963.
329 notes
·
View notes
Honest, doctor, I only smoke ten a day.
- Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius enjoyed both alcohol and tobacco in a way that could not always be regarded as healthy. There were both poetic and psychological aspects to this: the smell of a cigar was one of the few recollections he had of his father, who died in 1868. The mere colour of a wine was enough to inspire him: he thought that the golden Frascati of Rome was like "an ode of Horace" and that the red wine sauce served with roast fowl was at its best only after the "joyful red C major colour" had slowly cooked and become "melancholy" (dark) enough. Sibelius had a strong synaesthetic faculty. Musical harmonies, colours, odours and tastes together created pleasure for his senses.
His love of cigars were legendary. As payment for composing one of his most famous compositions, Valse Triste, he happily accepted a small fee and a box of cigars for his trouble. It was a decision he would rue later in life. Valse Triste went on to be performed internationally, over and over. Yet, Sibelius did not receive one dime of royalties on the work he had composed. He was said to have complained to one society hostess that he he should have taken the money and royalties as he didn’t realise at the time the cost of raising his family. His love of cigars would also cost his health. Sibelius was diagnosed with throat cancer in his 40s. The operations to remove the malignant growths were successful and he survived for another half a century.
Happily by the age of 71, twenty years before his death, Sibelius had earned enough money to stop composing altogether. In his retirement the composer loved to entertain friends and enjoyed drinking and smoking cigars. Not unlike Winston Churchill, Sibelius is rarely pictured without one. His favourite cigars were Finnish, made with Balcan tobacco.
61 notes
·
View notes