Sidebar 5

Fernando Sor wrote his first opera, "Telemachus on Calypso's Isle," when he was 18. The year was 1797, his instrument was the guitar, and the opera was a hit.

Sor was the first and only guitarist invited to perform with the London Philharmonic in its first 400 years. When Sor made his London debut in 1815, nobody could believe that such magical and surprising effects could be produced on the guitar.

Indeed, there was suppressed laughter when he first came on stage--laughter that soon changed into unbounded admiration when he began to play.