Cast
Nadine Baylis — Set designer, costumes
Graham Lustig — Choreographer
David Findlay — Lighting
Cynthia Harvey — Katerina, Juliet, Odette
Clarry Bartha — Donna Anna
Helen Field — Tatyana
Mark Silver — Prince Siegfried
Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester
Vladimir Ashkenazy — Conductor
Program notes
The first part of the two Christopher Nupen films about the music and the artistic intentions of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, one of the greats and a composer who appeals to millions of people.
The prime focus of both films is Tchaikovsky's lifelong preoccupation with the idea of fate as a controlling influence in our lives.
The first film features the women in his personal life (his mother, Alexandra, his governess Fanny Durbach and the Belgian singer Désirée Artôt) and the vulnerable young heroines in his early music: Katerina Kabanova in The Storm, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Francesca in Francesca da Rimini, Odette in Swan Lake and Tatyana in Evgeny Onegin.
There are no actors in these films, the story is told entirely through Tchaikovsky's music, Tchaikovsky's words and those of some of his closest acquaintances.
