Monday 6 June 2011

True Story




Reg Barker was the leader of the Percussion Section at the orchestra of the Royal Opera House.  It was part of his duties as leader to study the score before a new work was performed, working out which of his section members would play which instrument, for instance, would the side drum have enough time to get to the cymbals, etc.

On call for a performance one evening shortly before rehearsals for the new opera started, he decided to use the interval to go down to the library and start on the job. He was only half way through the task when the interval bell sounded, calling the musicians back to the pit. 

Reg had a glass eye; when he heard the bell, he took it out, shuffled the papers into a pile, placed his eye on top of it and said: "here, keep an eye on it for me, and carry on, if you would. I've got to get back to work".




29 comments:

  1. Wonderful! I saw the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra recently and was interested to note that one of the violinists had something amiss with one of his eyes. I thought then how difficult it must be to focus on the sheet music.

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  2. Hello:
    What a superb story! And one which has really made us laugh. We think in future we shall eye all members of the orchestra in a completely new light!

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  3. I had to giggle at the end. thanks :)

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  4. haha...too fun...and i imagine anyone coming upon it to be rather surprised...

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  5. Incredible little story ... and yet I believe you! I also found your previous post very interesting and thoughtful, and I'm glad to see you never lost your sense of humor.

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  6. Gosh ! Prosthetics just get better and better , don't they .

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  7. Wonderful. I love hearing delicious behind the scenes of the opera stories.

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  8. Friko, that is so funny I can't stop laughing! And I am absolutely certain it is a true story! Touche! Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ

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  9. Great tale, Friko. I was once a driver's mate to a chap with one eye. When he was checking for traffic at a junction, I closed both of mine!

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  10. Friko--My son is a musician, so the details made your story sound quite realistic.

    The ending was so whimsical. Well done! Encore!

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  11. Friko - That is hysterical. What a character!

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  12. Friko, your mind is truly a wonder.

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  13. friko thankyou for that insight into the goings on behind the scenes. steven

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  14. A childhood friend of mine had an uncle who had a glass eye ... he would take it out from time to time, completely freaking us out!

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  15. :D Very funny! I had an uncle with a glass eye, before they connected the muscles to it. I was fascinated watching his eyes "go in different directions"!

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  16. Wonderful! Thank you for this, I had to laugh at the idea of so literally keeping an eye on things...

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  17. Hello Friko

    How funny. It has reminded me of my Grandmother, who also had a glass eye.

    Anna

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  18. Oh how grissly - I certainly wouldn't have gone near the pile with that watching over them.

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  19. If I had a glass eye I would do the same thing. Ha!

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  20. Some lovely grisly tales this week on the Magpie rounds, yours is so great, love this character.

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  21. Funny! Would a glass eye make a good paperweight?
    (I almost titled my Magpie True Story too!)

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  22. Haha this great there was a teacher in my school growing that used to remove his glass eye and sit on people's desks!

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