YouTube
(90 min.) since June 2011
BBC screenshots
(premiere 15 Oct. 2010)
Chopin –
The Women Behind The Music
[... notably Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale]
« Frederic Chopin is known for
his technically demanding and expressive piano compositions,
but he was also passionate about the female voice.
Chopin – The Women Behind The
Music follows maverick young pianist James Rhodes on a
journey to Warsaw, Paris and London to discover the women
whose voices had such a powerful influence on the composer.
Exploring Chopin's life, James
encounters the singers who enchanted the composer with their
voices – Konstancja, a young soprano and the object of his
teenage affections; Delfina, the sexually notorious Polish
Parisian émigré countess; fellow composer and opera singer
Pauline Viardot, and
the Swedish opera star Jenny Lind, who so affected Chopin in
the final years of his life. »
[and even earlier¹]
«
James performs a selection of
Chopin's piano music, while rising young opera star Natalya Romaniw sings some of the arias that inspired the composer.
There are also musical contributions and comments from the
great Chopin practitioners Emmanuel Ax and Garrick Ohlsson,
biographer Adam Zamoyski and Chopin expert Jeremy Siepmann. »
Last telling scene of
the documentary
Source of the announcement |
More
A Prospect Wales/Cymru production
DVD may be released later
REVIEWS
Chopin - The Women Behind The Music
BBC Music Magazine (15 October 2010)
The Guardian (16 October 2010) |
« Pianist James Rhodes explores Chopin’s lifelong passion
for female
singers, culminating in the untold story
of his
relationship with the greatest diva
of the age, Jenny
Lind. »
