Tchaikovsky was not tragic but had a ‘Monty Python’ sense of humour, says biographer

A US academic says an incorrect and distorted narrative has formed around Tchaikovsky. Photograph: Bojan Brecelj/Corbis/Getty Images

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky has long been portrayed as a melancholic and tragic figure tormented by his homosexuality. But the Swan Lake composer was in fact a fun-loving man with a “Monty Python” sense of humour, according to a biographer.

Prof Simon Morrison, a leading musicologist, has studied previously unpublished letters and diaries that, he said, reveal a new side to the composer, whose masterpieces include the ballets The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, as well as symphonies, operas and concertos.