The Right Man for the Job
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Under Gainsley’s guidance, Sondheim allowed that he writes in spurts now, not as “intensively” as he used to; that he believes creative work goes on in dreams; and that any day he doesn’t have to write lyrics is a joy. He said the entire score for Sweeney Todd is a tribute to film composer Bernard Herrmann, who wrote for Alfred Hitchcock and also did the music for Hangover Square–a 1945 thriller “about a composer who, when he heard a certain sound, went out and murdered women.” Sondheim was 15 when he saw this film; it made an indelible impression. When Gainsley observed that “the most frightening part of Sweeney Todd, where an array of customers is coming and getting their throats cut, is also accompanied by the sweetest music,” Sondheim said he was determined to take the audience by surprise. “I thought, I know, I’ll write a really sweet tune and in the middle of it”–drawing his hand across his throat–“someone’ll go cccchhtt, like that. And it works. The audience laughs because it’s such a shocker that in the middle of a ballad you slit somebody’s throat. I love suspense, I love to be scared, I loved scary movies when I was a kid.”
There was never any real question about what Gainsley would become, however. After a year at Syracuse University (hanging out at the CBS studios in Manhattan most of the time), he was yanked back home to the University of Minnesota to study political science and law. He practiced law with his father, married and started a family, and continued a passionate relationship with opera from the audience. Eventually it occurred to someone to ask him to give a talk about opera to an alumni group, and in 1976 he was tapped as an occasional panelist for the legendary Texaco Opera Quiz, conducted during intermission on Met broadcasts. The quiz (which he still does) launched other engagements, and now he arranges his law practice around his lecture schedule. Next month he’ll be in Los Angeles talking about Tales of Hoffmann, and in February, just before A Little Night Music opens at the City Opera of New York, he’ll interview Sondheim again, for an audience at the Guggenheim. “I’m not formally trained in anything I do except the law,” he said. “I learned by being backstage, by watching. So many people mentored me. These people were my parents’ age; they were like parents to me. It couldn’t happen today. They’d call security.”
No Way Up
