Sir Georg Solti, the conductor who led the Chicago Symphony for so many years, was sometimes the butt of harmless practical jokes.

One night he got even.

In Tel Aviv, he persuaded a rabbi to go over to the scheduled singer just before a concert—and thank the singer for agreeing to sing his part in Hebrew.

Upon hearing this, the singer was “stricken.”

(Sir Georg’s parents were named Stern and Rosenbaum. His father changed the boy’s name to Solti to shield him from anti-Semitism.)