Marcel Proust
In the interest of creating original content for the web we have developed our own - slightly different - version of the famous Proust Questionnaire. Boston Modern Orchestra Project conductor Gil Rose was gracious enough to answer our version of the Proust Questionnaire recently. What is The Proust Questionnaire, you ask?
Background
The young Marcel Proust was asked to fill out questionnaires at two social events: one when he was 13, another when he was 20. Proust did not invent this party game; he is simply the most extraordinary person to respond to them. At the birthday party of Antoinette Felix-Faure, the 13-year-old Marcel was asked to answer the following questions in the birthday book, and here is a sample of what he said:
Marcel Proust's answers at age 13 in 1884:
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
To be separated from Mama
Where would you like to live?
In the country of the Ideal, or, rather, of my ideal
What is your idea of earthly happiness?
To live in contact with those I love, with the beauties of nature, with a quantity of books and music, and to have, within easy distance, a French theater
Gil Rose
Gil Rose's answers in 2007:
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Cocktail Hour
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
No Cocktail Hour
What is your most marked characteristic?
A tendency to make obscure but self-entertaining cultural references
What is the quality you most like in a man?
Dignity
What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Dignity
What do you most value in your friends?
Dignity
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
A tendency to overvalue dignity in my friends
What is your favorite occupation?
Cocktail Hour
What is your favorite journey?
Escaping from town (preferably to a cocktail hour)
Who is your favorite hero/heroine of fiction?
Lassie
What books are currently on your bedside table?
"The Aesthetics of Survival" by George Rochberg
Who are your favorite composers?
This is a closely guarded state secret
Who is your favorite performing artist?
Every soloist I ever worked with because I got to perform with them
What is it that you most dislike?
Hamloaf
Which talent would you most like to have?
I would like to be able to juggle
How would you like to die?
In a dignified juggling accident
What is your motto?
I never want to belong to a club that will have me as its member. (thanks Groucho)
Gil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project perform at Sanders Theatre on May 19.
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