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Giacomo Puccini, his heroines, the liberating step forward they are in the history of women’s portrayal on the lyrical stage and what they reveal about the relations between Puccini and women. That is the subject of this documentary, nourished by fresh testimonies of the greatest puccinian sopranos of our time and their performances in Royal Opera House, Vienna State Opera or the Aix-en-Provence Festival ; by reenactment sequences shot in the artist’s tuscan villa ; and by numerous archives. For the 100th anniversary of the death of the most popular opera composer in 2024 and in partnership with the Simonetta Puccini per Giacomo Puccini Foundation and the Giacomo Puccini Lucca Foundation.

In the closed world of highly rigorous classical pianists, strict and impressive, Lucas Debargue comes as a breath of fresh air.

He only started playing the piano seriously in his twenties, and mainly performs classical pieces, but with a new touch of talent and out of the common techniques.  
 
 

All that is certain about Serge Prokofiev is that he was a musical genius and one of the greatest composers of the 20th Century.

With the discovery of his personal diaries, the mystery that was Prokofiev is about to be revealed.

Prokofiev fled Russia shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution. He spent the next eighteen years trying to build a successful career in North America and Europe. Then, he made a decision which stunned the world: he returned to Russia in 1936, at the height of the Stalinist purges. Now more than fifty years after his death, this documentary reveals the largely untold story about the pivotal eighteen years (1918-1936) outside Russia, the years which sealed his fate. Through the intimate, revealing and often heartbreaking words of Prokofiev's diaries, the film investigates Prokofiev's life and art through his own words and the prism of some of his most extraordinary musical creations.

Discover the final episode of the world-famous series on Paris Opera Ballet students!

BUDDING STARS
Season 1 - 7x26' 
The 300-year old Paris Opera Ballet School is today a mythical place with an international reputation. In September 2011, it was home to 130 pupils, aged from 8 to 18, all driven by the same desire – to dance one day at the Paris Opera.


BUDDING STARS, FIVE YEARS LATER
Saison 2 - 5x26' 
Experience the Paris Ballet School’s young dancers’ extraordinary lives. The youngest are now trying out for the corps de ballet in which only a lucky few have been inducted. But did the rest continue their career? Find out where they are five years later.
 
BUDDING STARS: COMING OF AGE​
Season 3 - 60' 
Today, those students, we followed for 10 years in the series, are now approaching their 25th birthday and will enter the prime of their careers. It's time to discover the ultimate episode, the conclusion to an incredible dance series!
 
It is also the occasion to discover our catalogue presenting our best documentaries on DANCE! 

From well-known works in the classical repertoire,...

this collection sets out to reveal the history of a work, in the context of its composer's life, its musical composition, and the various performances of it.

In southwest France, on the shores of the Atlantic, Biarritz boasts luxurious villas, long beaches, and cliffs sculpted by the waves. In 1921, it was here that Igor Stravinsky found refuge. The Russian composer who revolutionized music with “The Rites of Spring” had fled the Bolshevik revolution of 1917.

 On this unique piece of coastline, where the climate fluctuates between balmy and tempestuous, he wrote the dazzling “Petrushka”, a work brimming with excess and paradox. 

Off the coast of Africa the Canary archipelago is stretching. It was on this Spanish land, lost in the Atlantic Ocean that Camille Saint-Saëns landed in 1888. The 63 years old composer of the Carnival of the Animals was then broken up by mourning and crushed by his celebrity.

 In Las Palmas, the capital, in the arid countryside or the villages, he will reinvent himself and find here a new life for his work.

This film invites us to discover Milhaud's life, so as to understand his work better.

Darius Milhaud was without doubt one of the most fertile composers of the 20th Century, leaving behind an extensive artistic legacy of nearly 450 Opuses that stands out as one of the most original in French music of his time.

Before being recognized and accepted, many of his works caused scandal and gave rise to impassioned controversy due to their non-conformism and their pioneering character. He also came to prominence in the 1920s as the leading light in the "Groupe des Six".

His music, and more particularly his lyric works, express his greatest sources of inspiration:
- his attachment to popular roots, such as those of his native Provence, but also those he adopted in his encounters with other cultures, such as Brazilian folklore or jazz.
- his religious faith, marked by the Jewish tradition of the Comtat Venaissin.
- his humanist convictions, expressed in his choice of texts and historical figures that express a will for the progress and liberty of mankind, such as Christopher Columbus, Maximilien or Simon Bolivar.

Aided by his wife's reminiscences and by the artist's own comments, this film looks at the work and life of Darius Milhaud, a man that stood for universality and for dialogue between cultures.

Taiwan has been a cultural crossroads for centuries, having undergone in turn European and Japanese colonisation, then American influence. The island enjoys a singular and highly intimate love affair with classical music. 

Leading conductors visiting the country, including Sir Simon Rattle, are amazed at the youth and the “hunger” of their audience during their concerts. It is a passion shared by millionaire Shi Wen-long, who was moved to tears as a child by Schumann’s “Dreaming”, which he first heard during a silent movie in the 1930s. In Tainan, in the south of the island, the elderly man has collected some 1,400 violins, comprising the largest collection in the world and including the most precious Stradivarius models. 

Tucked behind the Parisian Grands Boulevards is a place that imbues today’s budding talents with the spirit of the major 19th century composers and writers.

The Opéra comique is a theatre. It is also a genre – a blend of dialogue and song - and a repertoire, but, above all, it is the cradle of a lively performing art. The last resident troupe at the Opéra comique dated back to 1971 until recently, but this year, the institution has gone back to its roots and created an academy with 10 young opera singers, picked for their talent, their diversity and the way they complement each other. The first set of singers is already busy transforming the Opéra comique’s history, repertoire and culture into song.

The aim of this documentary is to rediscover the organ and heighten public awareness of organ music. Two great organists, Michel Chapuis and Alessandro Valoriani, share their enthusiasm with us and their world of music.

Michel Chapuis tells us about the musical instrument itself, with its long history and diversity and explains how the organ works. He visits his organ builder friends and also some artisan restorers working in chapels in the Jura region. Organs are in fact as complicated as computers!
Alessandro Valoriani introduces us to the liturgy and the great classics that were composed for the organ. The artist explains how the organ became a sacred instrument and why its music has acquired such a mystical dimension, constantly present in the life of the monks.
The organ has in fact always been a popular musical instrument. It is often made out of materials found in the local area and so its construction varies according to its environment. In the same way that music is carried and uplifted by the architecture of the church, so the organ is sensitive to climate and seasonal changes. In order to obtain its ultimate potential, it draws on the surrounding environment to bring its music to life.

"I am about to commence my grand symphony, in which the development of my infernal passion will be depicted". In December 1830, Berlioz' symphony took Paris by storm. He had just ignited the Romantic movement with the creation of his Fantastic Symphony.

By composing this autobiographical symphony, often qualified as the first "sound cathedral", Hector Berlioz proved he was a musician with a vast imagination. This work considerably expanded the scale of music and opened the way for all future orchestrators, from Bruckner to Gustav Mahler, from Shostakovich to Messiaen.

In addition to being a masterpiece of symphony music, the Symphonie Fantastique immediately posed the question of the relationship between the artist and society. The Fantastique is a product of its era, and also played a part in changing that era.

The documentary examines the aura of influence that Berlioz's masterpiece continues to exert over contemporary music and over creation in general, in a world in which Romanticism seems but a remote reference.