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Medicinally Speaking

By Mark Chilla
Published September 23, 2019 at 3:50 PM EDT

This week, we're heading to the musical pharmacy, with a show all about medicine, potions, poisons, and drugs we're calling " Medicinally Speaking."

Did you know...

  • The final two movements of the Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz were the result of an opium-induced fever dream!

  • Robert Schumann injured his hand using a mechanical finger-stretcher called a Dactylion. To treat his injury, he tried mercury, herbal bandages, and putting his hand into the abdominal cavity of a freshly-slaughtered animal.

  • The love potion from Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner was the same love potion that is central to the plot of Gaetano Donizetti's The Elixir of Love!

  • The text William Schuman's Mail-Order Madrigals comes from an 1897 Sears-Roebuck catalog, including a remedy for so-called "female weakness" called "Doctor Worden's Female Pills."

    • See the full playlist below.

    And don't forget to listen to this week's podcast!