MUSIC AND FOOD

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 54, 5 July 1940, Page 16

MUSIC AND FOOD

Composer's Strange Mixtures OW many of those who listened H to Suppé’s "Boccaccio Overture" a week or two ago knew that the composer was the author of a cookery book? Music and asparagus may seem a strange mixture-in spite of Dinner Music-but Suppé was quite as much interested in one as in the other, and this clash of interests led him at times into strange situations. But the biggest mess he ever got into was the result of his interest in gardening. Early in 1878 two librettists, F. Zell and Richard Genee, completed the text of a comic opera and asked Suppé to produce the music. The libretto was in fact "Boccaccio," and Suppé returned to

the country to compose without distractions. But summer and the balmy air of his estate were too much for him. He had just bought this place, and there was much to be done about the house and grounds, especially in the asparagus picts. Day after day went past and music was completely forgotten. Food, however, was not. He neglected "Boccaccio," as well as another libretto committed to him about the same time, but he found time to compose a cookery book with menus for the whole year, and then, feeling a little ashamed of himself, placed his wife Sofie’s name on the cover as author. He returned to the city without writing a note. To complete the story it is necessary to add that this lover of good food died, by the irony of fate, of cancer of the stomach, and literally starved to death.