Scandalous Overtures

Professor Robert Greenberg uncovers the mystery of how classical music composer Franz Joseph Haydn lost his head and didn't get a funeral until more than a hundred years after his death.

Russian classical music composer Peter Tchaikovsky was gay and lived a double life, as Professor Robert Greenberg examines in this episode. His seeming death from cholera is uncovered to be a farce, and the truth is something much more scandalous.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was rumored to have written his own requiem, as catalogued in 1984's Amadeus, but Professor Robert Greenberg tells us the real story. The truth is, Mozart was not poisoned at all, and over one hundred separate diagnoses have been proposed to explain his death.

Ludwig van Beethoven was going deaf, but more than his hearing was at stake, as Professor Robert Greenberg uncovers in this episode. In October 1802, the 31 year old Beethoven seriously considered committing suicide after withdrawing from the world due to his increasing deafness.

Italian composer Carlo Gesualdo was one of the most innovative composers of the 16th century. As Professor Robert Greenberg tells us, he was also a serial murderer with a penchant for sexual extravagance, spousal abuse, and sadomasochism.

Professor Robert Greenberg tells the story of this great composer, who spent nearly a month in jail after losing his temper. For speaking his mind to Prince Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar and trying to resign from his position at court, the prince had Bach tossed in jail on November 6, 1717.

Lully was the first important composer of French-language opera, and was a close friend and confidant to King Louis XIV of France. Yet for all of his fame and power, Lully is almost entirely unknown today for anything other than the event of his death.

Franz Schubert died at age 31, but, in the last 16 years of his life, he created a body of musical work that's beyond belief in its size and quality. When he contracted syphilis in 1822, depression and despair accompanied the physical symptoms of the disease, leaving Schubert despondent.

Professor Robert Greenberg tells the story of how the greatest Italian composer of the 19th century was forced out of retirement. Nobody was happy about Giuseppe Verdi's retirement except him, and, in 1879, his wife Giuseppina hatched a plot with intent to get him back to work.

One of the greatest mysteries in music history is the relationship between Brahms and Clara Schumann. In early 1854, Robert Schumann attempted suicide and was committed to an asylum, so Brahms rushed to Düsseldorf and pledged to stay with the distraught Clara Schumann until Robert's recovery.

Sergei Rachmaninoff was facing writer's block and tried to cure it through hypnosis back in the late 1800s, Professor Robert Greenberg explains. Suffering from extreme depression, Rachmaninoff visited a doctor in January of 1900, and was hypnotized every day to miraculous effect.

Hector Berlioz fell in love with Camille Moke in 1830, and within a month the couple decided to marry. After moving to Rome for a residency, Berlioz received a letter from Camille's mother saying that she was engaged to marry another man, and, overcome with anger, he began planning their murders.

Are Richard Wagner's opera manuscripts hiding in a Nazi bunker after being gifted to Adolf Hitler for his 50th birthday? We may never know, as Professor Robert Greenberg investigates.

American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk had a thing for music, money, and sex, as Professor Robert Greenberg explains. He often parlayed his high-end celebrity into intimacy with his female fans, many of whom were schoolgirls.

A trick rocking chair in Johannes Brahms' apartment was reserved, almost exclusively, for unsuspecting women. He would offer a seat in the chair to his guests, which would send them either flopping forward or flying backward, eliciting uproarious laughter from Brahms.