There have been plenty of acrimonious breakups in the classical world, indeed in the early music world, some of them involving big-name lute players.
Art is a passionate business, which magnifies differences of opinion, and egos can be large, which also magnifies differences. Enormous amounts of money and intense press scrutiny can really blow things out of proportion. Roman's remark about a "classical personality" being unable to break up with himself ignores reality: most important music until the 20th century was vocal, and involved a writer of words and a composer of music. Mozart and Da Ponte, and Handel and Morell, were artistic committees no less than Elton John and Bernie Taupin.
