La vida sexual de Chopin

Authors

Antoni Pizà, CUNY Graduate CenterFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2010

Abstract

Resumen:

La historiografía musical y la cultura popular nos han legado una imagen de Chopin como un ser débil y asexual. Este tópico incluso ha marcado la obra de pensadores como Sartre en su obra La náusea. Sin embargo, la lectura de la correspondencia del compositor nos brinda el perfil de un ser humano con unas inquietudes sexuales bastante “normales”. En su juventud, Chopin mantuvo una estrecha relación, que algunos definirían como homosexual, con Titus Woyciechowski y años más tarde frecuentó el círculo de Altolphe de Custine, erudito aristócrata de prestigio y reconocido homosexual. La correspondencia –posiblemente fraudulenta– entre Chopin y Delphina Potocka (glosada aquí en español por primera vez) revela un serio intento, aunque malogrado, de heterosexualizar al compositor. En el fondo, la vida sexual de Chopin nunca ha dejado de despertar la curiosidad del aficionado y de generar discurso entre los expertos.

Abstract:

Music historiography and popular culture have passed on an image of Chopin as a weak and asexual human being. This cliché has even left a mark on thinkers such as Sartre and his work Nausea. However, a reading of the composer’s correspondence offers an image of a human being with quite “normal” sexual concerns. As a young man, Chopin had a close relationship with Titus Woyciechowski, a bond considered by many as a homosexual involvement. Later on, he frequented Altolphe de Custine’s circle, an openly gay writer and aristocrat. The correspondence (possibly fraudulent) between Chopin and Delphina Potocka, which never before has been glossed in Spanish, presents a serious, if unsuccessful, attempt to heterosexualize the composer. Deep down, Chopin’s sexual life has never failed to awaken the curiosity of music lovers and to generate discourse among experts.

Comments

This article was originally published in Itamar: Revista de investigación musical, available at https://ojs.uv.es/index.php/ITAMAR/article/view/14072/12991

This work is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).