Chopin, Chopin!

Chopin ne vivait qu'à travers sa musique, ne pouvant traduire ses sentiments qu'en les traduisant en notes de musique. C'est à un âge très précoce qu'il est initié au piano. Plus tard, exilé politique en France à partir de 1831 -où il passera presque la moitié de sa vie-, le compositeur polonais a été influencé par la musique de salon française. A Paris, il évolue parmi Liszt, Rossini, Bellini.

The London Royal Academy of Music Lectures explore the connection between music and society.

From popular revolt to the obsession with the self, even to modern nationalism, Simon Schama explores the enduring and powerful legacy the romantics have left on our modern world.

The Paris Opera Ballet, known for its historic attachment to the classical ballet and recognized for its inimitable interpretations of the great repertoire, has been able to defend its place among the most versatile companies in the world, and prove that he was perfectly capable of adapting to the demands and subtleties of the contemporary repertoire. A tribute to the remarkable technique and the particular style of its dancers, this collector's box looks back at three major events of recent years: Orphée et Eurydice by Pina Bausch, Rain by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, and a “Hommage à Jerome Robbins” , ten years after his disappearance. These three programs were given at the Palais Garnier, temple of classical dance: a way of ensuring continuity between the masterpieces of yesterday and the masterpieces of today.

On a summer day of 1846, George Sand hosts a large party at her country house in Nohant. Among the celebrities present are the painter Eugene Delacroix, the opera singer Pauline Viardot, and Viardot's lover, the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev. As Sand's longtime affair with composer Frederick Chopin is close to an end, Sand's daughter Solange tries to use the situation to win the heart of the ailing musical genius. Filmmaker Andrzej Zulawski irreverently depicted his famous characters as shallow, petty, selfish opportunists, while Chopin is portrayed as a tragic, misunderstood genius.

Prof. Joseph Elsner guides his protégé Frydryk Chopin through his formative years to early adulthood in Poland. At a recital in a duke's home Chopin insults the new Russian-installed governor, and must flee the country. The professor takes him to Paris, where he eventually comes under the wing and influence of novelist George Sand and rises to prominence in the music world, to the exclusion of his old friends and patriotic feelings towards Poland.

Les Sylphides is a short, non-narrative ballet blanc. Its original choreography was by Mikhail Fokine, with music by Frédéric Chopin orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov.

Legendary director Ingmar Bergman creates a testament to the strength of the soul—and a film of absolute power. Karin and Maria come to the aid of their dying sister, Agnes, but jealousy, manipulation, and selfishness come before empathy. Agnes, tortured by cancer, transcends the pettiness of her sisters’ concerns to remember moments of being—moments that Bergman, with the help of Academy Award–winning cinematographer Sven Nykvist, translates into pictures of staggering beauty and unfathomable horror.