Stat's Porch Swing tidbit of the day, and it is a true story, and not only that, I was there when it happened:
STRANGE LAWSUITS
The plaintiffs: Sixteen professional String-players (Violin, Viola, Cello)
The defendant: The city of Bonn, Germany
The lawsuit: In
March 2004, 16 Violinists from the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn sued for a pay-raise on the grounds that they played more notes per rehearsal than brass or woodwind players. They demanded an extra €100- ($123 at that time) per rehearsal (or performance) for the extra notes they had to play, adding that they were being "generous" by not asking for more.
(eyeballs rolling)
The Verdict: the violinists changed their tune and dropped the suit.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED (I was there): the newly hired Orchestra director added 2 more rehearsals per week, meaning, an additional 8 hours of work, which caused many string players, who were used to making lots of extra dough on the side teaching privately, to lose money from having to cancel giving said private lessons during that time. Not only that, the opening repertoire of the 2003-2004 Opera Season in Bonn had two baroque operas in the mix, which required no brass. So, those string players were all pissed off that they had to do their jobs. This caused a huge schism in the Orchestra and I remember a major Sitzprobe for an Opera where I had the title role of Mahatma Ghandi, in May of 2004, where the other string players were so pissed at the 16 that they refused to sit next to them. The Concertmaster was not one of the 16 players. Seeing that they had made an absolute laughing stock out of themselves and that no sane pro-musician wanted to be around them, having become pariahs in the musical community, they gave up.
One of those string players called me four years later, wanted me to sing a solo gig with a string quartet. I told him I would be charging €10 per eighth-note...
Ahhh, that was a wild moment in history, one I will not forget...
