The 30-minute biopic drama Love Song stars Simon Alexander (above) as Russia’s greatest composer at two seminal stages in his life – aged 28 at the beginning of his amazing career and just a few days after the premiere of his Sixth Symphony and his ensuing mysterious death in 1893 at just 53.
Lee Farrell (above) co-stars as Eduard Zak, the handsome young music student at the Moscow Conservatory who inspired his professor, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, to write the romantic iconic masterpiece that would take the world by storm.
Love Song is based on exclusive research by lifelong Tchaikovsky aficionado Ian Woodward who reveals for the first time the heart-breaking true story behind the creation of the composer’s fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet which spawned one of the most famous love themes ever written.
The film includes a stunning fantasy dance duet for Tchaikovsky and Eduard Zak specially choreographed for Love Song by Yat-Sen Chang, former principal dancer of the English National Ballet, with the composer of Swan Lake and Eugene Onegin danced by Serbian National Ballet soloist Lloyd Petchey and appearances by the Watford Symphony Orchestra.
The duet was given its stage world premiere on 17 August 2013 in a sparkling ballet mixed-bill programme mounted by Corinna Chute’s famed Espinosa Dance Project company at the Berkhamsted theatre of the Espinosa Chute Centre in Hertfordshire. The protagonists, as in Love Song, were Lloyd Petchey and Rowen Shone.
A brilliant cast breathes life into this never-before-told love story, with Veronica Sevegrand (above) as the composer’s doting patroness Nadezhda von Meck, Aimee Craft (below) as Tchaikovsky’s ill-fated wife Antonina Milyukova, Joe Shefer as the priest who marries him and brings him tragic news, Vicky Album as his glamorous opera superstar fiancée Désirée Artôt, Annika á Lofti as Vera Zakova who snubs him and Stephen Carroll as Tsar Alexander III who fêtes him.
All the characters depicted in the film actually existed, although some moments have been fictionalised to fill-in gaps where details are scant or non-existent.
Tchaikovsky was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, not least his rousing, patriotic “1812” Overture and his iconic ballets Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty.
Tchaikovsky’s ballets, along with his eight operas, his first Piano Concerto, his Violin Concerto and his six numbered symphonies, remain the staple diet of today’s music scene.
Love Song’s story is told through the voice of Tchaikovsky as he looks back on his life in “old age” – he died aged 53 but, with his pale-grey hair, looked much older.
There are also, however, some key scenes in the film when he is aged 33 and 37 – such as when he marries.
With stunning costumes by top designer and costumier Andrea Gambell, brilliant 19th-century-style hair and make-up by the awesomely talented Ann-Marie Mays, sumptuous period locations across Europe, and a score that is “pure Tchaikovsky”, Love Song is a feast for the eyes and balm for the ears.
The music for the Love Theme episode of Romeo and Juliet is passionate and yearning but always with an underlying current of anxiety.
Tchaikovsky’s Love Theme, in fact, is the most famous and well-loved section of Romeo and Juliet and shows how the protagonists’ forbidden love affair grows against all the odds, even after death.
Love Song: The Triumph and Tragedy of Tchaikovsky was filmed in many stunning locations across England and Russia.
This Encore Films production is a cinematic first and is set to ruffle a few feathers and rock the classical-music Establishment.
Love Song: The Triumph and Tragedy of Tchaikovsky will embark on an international film-festival journey in March 2014.
From everyone at Encore Films…
Bon voyage!