Eroica Page #3

Synopsis: On June 9, 1804, Ludwig van Beethoven and his pupil Ries assemble a group of musicians to give the first performance of his Third Symphony, 'Bonaparte', to his patron Prince Lobkowitz and his guests, including hypercritical Count Dietrichstein, in Vienna. The piece provokes political arguments among players and audience as to whether Bonaparte is a tyrant, or, as Beethoven believes, a liberator. The composer is also rejected by his former love, the recently widowed Josephine von Deym, though the visiting elder statesman of composers Haydn pays him a strange compliment. Leaving the gathering, Beethoven confesses to Ries that he is losing his hearing and later he reads that Bonaparte has declared himself the French emperor. As a result he will lose all respect for Napoleon and will change the symphony's title to 'Eroica'.
 
IMDB:
7.6
Year:
2003
129 min
540 Views


of the diatonic and the chromatic.

Hardly worth hurrying for.

Well, what we heard was splendid.

Let's have it very, very softly.

The marking is sotto voce -

"under your breath".

That's absurd. That's a vocal marking.

I don't see any singers, do you?

It's a funeral march, Wranitsky.

Watch out for the crescendos.

They don't go all the way.

I can just see the death carts

in the boulevards, can't you, Therese?

Black plumes on the horses

and gold epaulettes.

But who has died?

Is it the hero?

That wasn't bad.

It's not a symphony, though.

You decide what is art?

Steady on. Steady on, young man.

I didn't say it wasn't art.

The symphony has a structure.

This is a formless mass.

A mere arrangement of noise.

A great piling up of colossal ideas.

It's very moving.

In parts, it has elements of the sublime.

But it is also full of discord.

And it lacks rounding out.

It is not what we call a symphony.

I don't think it's concluded yet. Is it?

My point entirely. It's lunchtime and we're

only halfway through. It has four movements?

Gerhardt.

Matthias.

You must admit, dear friend,

it is rather difficult.

That, Serene Highness, is the most lavish

praise that can be given to an artist.

Really? How paradoxical. Why?

Because difficult is good.

Difficult is beautiful.

Difficult is closer to the truth.

Yes, I see what you're getting at.

Well done, Louis.

So moving. So very...

How to put it?

- French.

- French?

It is new. It is bold. It is French.

The French are marauding thugs

and Bonaparte an ill-bred adventurer.

Louis doesn't think so, do you?

He is the champion of the poor.

Well, that's a good thing, I suppose.

I mean, somebody has to be.

He's a charlatan.

He doesn't give a fig for the poor.

He hasn't done half as much for them

as our Lobkowitz here.

He won't last long if he carries on like that.

He's only a musician employed by the prince.

You can't go insulting your employer.

He's not employed by the prince.

He's not a servant like Wranitsky.

He writes what he likes, when he likes.

But he can't talk to the nobility of Austria

and Hungary as if they were his equals.

He believes he is noble

by virtue of his talent.

He doesn't accept the inequality.

Those are dangerous sentiments, Herr Ries.

People have been hanged for less.

Right. This is for the players.

The gentlefolk will have proper food later on.

Beer, please. And you,

keep your hands off that ladies' maid.

Kirsten?

Hadn't given it a moment's thought.

What do you reckon to the band, then?

They've taken the symphony

to new heights.

Christ, have they?

Go on.

He's like a Roman hero.

He sweeps the old oligarchies before him.

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Nick Dear

Nick Dear (born 11 June 1955 in Portsmouth) is an English writer for stage, screen and radio. He received a BAFTA for his first screenwriting credit, a TV adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion. Dear graduated with a degree in Comparative European Literature from the University of Essex in 1977. Dear’s plays include Power and The Villains’ Opera at the National Theatre; The Art of Success, Zenobia and Pure Science for the RSC; In the Ruins at Bristol Old Vic and Royal Court, London (1990); and Food of Love at the Almeida. Adaptations include Gorky’s Summerfolk and Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme at the National; Tirso de Molina’s The Last Days of Don Juan at the Royal Shakespeare Company; Arbuzov’s The Promise at the Tricycle; Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw at Bristol Old Vic; and Ostrovsky’s A Family Affair for Cheek by Jowl. Dear's screenplays include Persuasion, The Gambler, The Turn of the Screw, Cinderella, Byron, Eroica and Agatha Christie’s Poirot. Opera libretti include The Palace in the Sky at Hackney Empire and Siren Song at the Almeida. In 2005, Lunch in Venice appeared at the Shell Connections festival at the National Theatre. His plays Power (2003), and Summerfolk (1999) both premiered at the same venue. Power deals with the intrigue and tension of the court of the young Louis XIV of France. It has been produced at theatres in Portugal, Poland and Hungary, as well as the Finnish National Theatre (Kansallisteatteri). His play The Art of Success premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1986 in a production starring Penny Downie and Michael Kitchen, and was nominated for an Olivier Award. The plot revolves around William Hogarth and the political manipulation of art, the corruption of politics and treatment of women. It was subsequently produced at Manhattan Theatre Club in 1989, with Tim Curry playing Hogarth.Dear's adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein premiered at the Royal National Theatre in 2011, in a production directed by Danny Boyle.In November 2012 The Dark Earth and the Light Sky, his biographical play about Edward Thomas, opened at the Almeida Theatre, in a production directed by Richard Eyre. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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