Walking to and along the beach of Santa Monica, the author's recollections, brought on by the music heard on his walkman, become the inspiration for his book. He used this device for studying the scores of operas he was going to direct. Then, after his retirement, the habit of listening to music remained and brought him pictures of his youth and later life as a director, which resulted in material for his hobby, just taken up again, but this time more seriously: WRITING.

Each piece of music represented a scene of his life - his youth in Holland during the war and his life as a student there, show his country and the very specifically "Dutch-ness" in those unsettling periods during and just after World War II.

He had a happy early youth, but the war complicated all people's lives to various degrees. The liberation brought freedom, but also steps back to before-the-war customs of strict student rules, now hardly suitable. The fight with his uncertainty about sexual orientation muddied the happy, carefree days shared with his colleagues.

The author takes us from life in well-provided circumstances with siblings, friends, and cousins in summerhouses, through school years and life as a student, trying the 'normal' path by becoming engaged to a member of age-old Dutch nobility, and fleeing from his 'student corset' to wild nights in Paris.

England, love life there, and drama training change his goal in life: he becomes an opera stage director and travels all over the world. He starts an important friendship with an older actress with whom he collaborates on plays, some of which are produced, and a musical with its successful tour.

Through him, we get a glimpse of life in Holland, England and the USA and 'guesting' in out-of-the ordinary places. In short, as he puts it in "Plaisir d' amour," one of his chapters:

"I have had sexual encounters with many partners of many races, colors, religions, classes, and ages. These included artists, singers, an English spy, athletes, authors, etc., as well as doctors and other professionals. I was feted in high society and in utter (however stylish) poverty. I was entertained in castles and in shabby attic rooms. I have lived!"

"It has enriched me, not debased me. I have a wealth of memories and fond friendships as 'leftovers' from more intimate times. I can only hope I did not hurt too many people."

But this is only a small part of the journey on which the author leads the reader: we meet fascinating figures out of the artistic world, as well as those from the "beau monde." We experience the terrible ups and downs of performing "live" and getting rotten reviews. We even arrive at the near "pits," when the author has lost two well paying jobs and has to live from "the dole."

This is an uplifting book with the bounciness of a tennis ball.

In collaboration with the English actress Gillian Hume, he wrote several plays and a musical - some were successfully produced. He translated and wrote several opera libretti.

His United States stage debut was the 1972 production of Lucia di Lammermoor for Seattle Opera starring Beverly Sills. He remained there as resident stage director for two years (nine productions). He was guest director with numerous opera companies in the United States and Canada, performing works of "the Iron Repertoire" (Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti, Gounod, Wagner, Strauss, Britten and Menotti), as well as works of Copland, Stravinsky, Pasatieri, and Kirke Meecham.

He then concentrated more on teaching when he was asked to head (with a conductor/coach) the opera department at the University of Southern California. As full Professor of Music from 1974-1996, he taught stage training and stage directing classes, as well as directing the main stage operas. Many of his students have gone on to become internationally recognized singers and stage directors. After retirement, he continued as professor/director for The University of California at Los Angeles' (UCLA) productions, concluding with Don Giovanni performed in Royce Hall in 2001. He still gives master classes, but these days his main focus lies on writing.

Since 1996, he has written three books; Portrait Incomplete: Musical Memoirs, Rapido to EndStation and Changing Gears. Recently he has also dabbled in poetry, named and published as one of the Poets of 2005.

Boerlage lives with his partner of many years in their house in Santa Monica, 10 minutes walk from the Pacific Ocean with its large beach.