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I'm always running across quotations by Oscar Wilde involving pianos. Some are quotations from his plays and are in the mouths of his characters. Does anyone know if Oscar himself actually played the piano?

I don't think he had to time to practise...

He spent a lot of time running around London, holidaying in Ireland, and courting young boys with Bosie...
Not to mention non-stop partying at the various hotels he had taken residence in, trips to Europe and New York...

But his witticisms are really funny...

It makes you wonder how he found time to write - but he did... Lots of scribbling in furtive bursts of energy. (Not exactly conducive to good piano practise!)

Ding-dang-it!! That's a good question!!!

Maybe he just played pianists...

Maybe, since ladies were expected to be proficient, he was...

Maybe, since he was a multifaceted genius, he could...

Maybe, none of the above...

Fascinating Bunburyism...

I am actually going to see Mr. Wilde give a masterclass here in Ohio. With him being 90 and all, I am quite unsure how it will turn out. Although the hall is already sold out with the masterclass two weeks away. What are others opinions on the "wilde" man?

I think you are referring to Earl, and not Oscar, who has been dead for a *very* long time -- 1900, I believe.

-merlin

True, but there were other witty people around, including one James McNeill Whistler, the painter. Once, when Whistler did say aomething amusing in Wilde's presence, Oscar commented, "I wish I'd said that." "Don't worry, Oscar," Whistler replied, "you will."

Um no he's not. Do you ever see quotes about the piano coming from Earl Wild?

I see a lot of quotes about everything coming from Oscar Wilde, he just dabbled in everything because he's Oscar Wilde.

Yeah, Oscar Wilde died many many years back.

Frycek, you know there's a movie of Wilde's novel "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" done maybe in the '30s or '40s (I think). It's been a while since I saw the film, but there is a scene where one of the characters (I don't remember if it's Dorian) plays Chopin's Prelude No. 24. Such a dramatic piece of music.

Great novel. Great movie too.

(In WILDE's drawing room. A crowd of suitably dressed folk are engaged in typically brilliant conversation, laughing affectedly and drinking champagne)

PRINCE OF WALES: My congratulations, Wilde. You latest play is a great success. The whole of London's talking about you.
OSCAR: There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that it not being talked about.
(There follows fifteen seconds of restrained and sycophantic laughter)
PRINCE: Very very witty... very very witty.
WHISTLER: There's only one thing in the world worse than being witty and that is not being witty.
(Fifteen seconds more of the same)
OSCAR: I wish I had said that.
Whistler: You will, Oscar, you will.
(More laughter)
OSCAR: Your majesty, have you met James McNeill Whistler?
PRINCE: Yes, we've played squash together.
OSCAR: There is only one thing worse than playing squash together, and that is playing it by yourself.
(Silence)
I wish I hadn't said that.
WHISTLER: You did, Oscar, you did.
(A little laughter)
PRINCE: I've got to get back up the palace.
OSCAR: Your Majesty is like a big jam doughnut with cream on the top.
PRINCE: I beg your pardon?
OSCAR: Um... it was one of Whistler's.
WHISTLER: I never said that.
OSCAR: You did, James, you did.
(The PRINCE OF WALES stares expectantly at WHISTLER)
WHISTLER: ... Well, You Highness, what I meant was that, like a doughnut, um, your arrival gives us pleasure... and your departure only makes us hungry for more.
(Laughter)
Your Highness, you are also like a stream of bat's ****.
PRINCE: What?!?
WHISTLER: It was one of Wilde's. One of Wilde's.
OSCAR: It sodding was not! It was Shaw!
SHAW: I... I merely meant, Your Majesty, that you shine out like a shaft of gold when all around is dark.
PRINCE (accepting the compliment): Oh.
OSCAR (To WHISTLER): Right.
(To PRINCE)Your majesty is like a dose of clap. Before you arrive is pleasure, and after is a pain in the dong.
PRINCE (Loudly): WHAT?
WHISTLER and OSCAR: One of Shaw's, one of Shaw's.
SHAW: You bastards. Um... what I meant, Your Majesty, what I meant...
OSCAR: We've got him, Jim.
WHISTLER and OSCAR: Come on, Shaw-y.
SHAW: I merely meant...
OSCAR: Come on, Shaw-y.
WHISTLER: Let's have a bit of wit, then, man.
SHAW: (Blows raspberry)
(The PRINCE shakes SHAW's hand. Laughter all around)

Monty Python rocks

Fantastic. Much more interesting than another 10th grader playing Für Elise. Or perhaps that was another thread.

I'm a 10th grader!

:t:

He was not the Oscar who wrote The Unimportance of Being Oscar. That was another witty Oscar, who definitely was a pianist.

Rzewski - De Profundis :t: nudge nudge :t:

Fascinating Bunburyism...
"Nothing will induce me to part with Bunbury, and if you ever get married, which seems to me extremely problematic, you will be very glad to know Bunbury. A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it."

He was not the Oscar who wrote The Unimportance of Being Oscar.
No, he wrote only about important things. :p

(Ref: "The Importance of Being Earnest" which I have quoted above. Coincidentally, it is in that same play we hear, "The truth is rarely pure and never simple." And it's about 10 lines up from the quote I used. )

If he ran around with someone named Bosie, then he must have liked pianos!

Perhaps a little too much.

He always talked about it's exceptionally fine wood

Bosie's real name was Alfred. Maybe HE played the piano.

He was more of a horn player...

Had a predeliction for the youth orchestra

Alfred Lord Tennyson, I believe, was his real name. Son of the Marquiss of Queensbury who, (through a twist of fate), was the guy who forced the trial which sent OW to Reading Gaol. (Where OW wrote 'De Profundis')...

A very interesting life he lead. Truman Capote's life was similar in ways... (I don't think HE played the piano, though)...