0:00:06 > 0:00:11Once a year, the city of Parma celebrates the birth of a man
0:00:11 > 0:00:14revered as a founding father of the modern Italian nation.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18He wasn't a king or a politician,
0:00:18 > 0:00:19but a composer.
0:00:20 > 0:00:25Today, musicians often pose as heroes, rebels and radicals,
0:00:25 > 0:00:30but in the 1800s they truly were in the thick of the revolutions
0:00:30 > 0:00:33that were tearing up the map of Europe.
0:00:35 > 0:00:41In this volatile world, music reflected and even shaped events.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44This was the age of Verdi and Wagner,
0:00:44 > 0:00:48Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, Rossini, Chopin, Mahler, Debussy.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52No other century produced more great composers.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59In this series, I'm exploring the extraordinary transformation
0:00:59 > 0:01:01that happened in the 19th century,
0:01:01 > 0:01:06and discovering how music was at the front line of this changing world.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09This was the age when music and musicians burst
0:01:09 > 0:01:13out of the confines of the concert hall, and onto the public stage -
0:01:13 > 0:01:17when a revolutionary song was said to be worth 10,000 soldiers,
0:01:17 > 0:01:20and an opera could incite people to take to the streets
0:01:20 > 0:01:22and overthrow their government.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38In this film, I'll find out how music in the 19th century
0:01:38 > 0:01:42became charged with political significance.
0:01:42 > 0:01:44I feel like starting a revolution!
0:01:44 > 0:01:47From revolutionary France to Germany's search for nationhood
0:01:47 > 0:01:50and the Italian battle for independence.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53Composers didn't just talk about a revolution,
0:01:53 > 0:01:55they took to the barricades
0:01:55 > 0:02:01and wrote works that became musical cannonballs to fire into the fray.
0:02:19 > 0:02:21Our story starts in Paris,
0:02:21 > 0:02:24city of culture, joie de vivre
0:02:24 > 0:02:26and, at the dawn of the 19th-century,
0:02:26 > 0:02:28the bloody French Revolution.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34I've come here to find out how music was at the heart of a wave
0:02:34 > 0:02:37of insurgency which began here, in the City of Light,
0:02:37 > 0:02:39and then swept across Europe.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43# Allons enfants de la Patrie
0:02:43 > 0:02:46# Le jour de gloire est arrive! #
0:02:46 > 0:02:51Today, La Marseillaise embodies French solidarity,
0:02:51 > 0:02:54but it was born in the factional violence of the French Revolution.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59Written in Strasbourg, in 1792,
0:02:59 > 0:03:02by a French army officer called Rouget de Lisle,
0:03:02 > 0:03:05the song quickly made its way down to Marseille
0:03:05 > 0:03:08where it caught on like wildfire,
0:03:08 > 0:03:09hence the name - La Marseillaise.
0:03:09 > 0:03:14# L'etendard sanglant est leve. #
0:03:14 > 0:03:18There, it was belted out fervently by radicals and rebels
0:03:18 > 0:03:22as they made their way on the long march towards Paris
0:03:22 > 0:03:25to play their part in the bloodshed of the revolution.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29- OPERATIC SINGER: - # Aux armes citoyens
0:03:29 > 0:03:33# Formez vos bataillons
0:03:33 > 0:03:37# Marchez, marchez! #
0:03:37 > 0:03:39"To arms, citizens.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41"Form your battalions."
0:03:41 > 0:03:44La Marseillaise was sung by the revolutionaries
0:03:44 > 0:03:46as they stormed the Royal Palace.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52It may well have been ringing in Louis XVI ears,
0:03:52 > 0:03:55as his head was removed at the guillotine.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02The song rallied the French Revolutionary Army
0:04:02 > 0:04:05as it repelled foreign invaders.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08According to one army officer,
0:04:08 > 0:04:11La Marseillaise was worth 100,000 soldiers.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17In 1795, this hymn of violent revolution
0:04:17 > 0:04:20became the national anthem of the French Republic.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23MUSIC: JAZZ VERSION OF LA MARSEILLAISE
0:04:23 > 0:04:26The lyrics of La Marseillaise,
0:04:26 > 0:04:28celebrating citizens over tyrants,
0:04:28 > 0:04:31captured the essence of the French Revolution -
0:04:31 > 0:04:35that power resided with the people and not with the King.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42But it was more than just the words which made the song powerful.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48So, given that there were a huge number of war songs,
0:04:48 > 0:04:52of protest songs, revolutionary songs,
0:04:52 > 0:04:54why was it The Marseillaise that stuck,
0:04:54 > 0:04:56that has stood the test of time?
0:04:56 > 0:04:58If you compare The Marseillaise with
0:04:58 > 0:05:01other songs of the time,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04the difference lies in the tune. It's the music that's good.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06It's the music that makes the difference.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09There's this tremendous energy
0:05:09 > 0:05:11in the phrases and the repetition.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13# Aux armes citoyens
0:05:13 > 0:05:15# Formez vos bataillons. #
0:05:15 > 0:05:18And "citoyens" is an important word also,
0:05:18 > 0:05:22because being a citizen is not being a subject,
0:05:22 > 0:05:25and there lies the difference.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28If you sing it on your own, it sounds totally ridiculous.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30If you sing it well, it's better.
0:05:30 > 0:05:32If you are part of a crowd,
0:05:32 > 0:05:36then there is this sense of belonging together with
0:05:36 > 0:05:39people around you and being part of a fraternity
0:05:39 > 0:05:41as they say in the, said in the revolution.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46The Marseillaise had demonstrated the power of music
0:05:46 > 0:05:48to motivate the masses.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54Victor Hugo, the most famous French author of the age,
0:05:54 > 0:05:57sums up that power in his novel Les Miserables.
0:05:57 > 0:06:02"It is thanks to the little man of Paris that the revolution conquered.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04"He delights in song.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07"Give him The Marseillaise and he will liberate the world. "
0:06:12 > 0:06:17It wasn't only "the little man of Paris" that it roused.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21Just as the French Revolution inspired rebels and radicals
0:06:21 > 0:06:23well beyond France,
0:06:23 > 0:06:27so La Marseillaise became THE revolutionary song
0:06:27 > 0:06:28of 19th-century Europe.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37It carried the message that ordinary citizens could rise up
0:06:37 > 0:06:39and challenge tyranny.
0:06:39 > 0:06:41# Marchons!
0:06:41 > 0:06:45# Qu'un sang impur
0:06:45 > 0:06:49# Abreuve nos sillons!
0:06:49 > 0:06:54# Amour sacre de la Patrie... #
0:06:54 > 0:06:56And Europe's leaders were rightly petrified
0:06:56 > 0:07:00of music's potential to upset the status quo.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05When Napoleon came to power, he introduced
0:07:05 > 0:07:07a new civil code of law -
0:07:07 > 0:07:09forbidding privileges based on birth,
0:07:09 > 0:07:11allowing freedom of religious worship,
0:07:11 > 0:07:15encouraging government jobs to go to those best suited to them.
0:07:15 > 0:07:16So far, so good.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19But he also imposed strict censorship -
0:07:19 > 0:07:21on theatres, on the press
0:07:21 > 0:07:24and on music.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27On Napoleon's hit list was The Marseillaise.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30He understood its revolutionary power
0:07:30 > 0:07:35and set about replacing it with this rather less rousing hymn.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39TRANSLATION:
0:07:45 > 0:07:48Originally the revolutionary people's hero,
0:07:48 > 0:07:53Napoleon had shown himself to be as tyrannical as the old monarchy.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57Open opposition to his regime was a dangerous business,
0:07:57 > 0:07:59so protesters disguised their political messages
0:07:59 > 0:08:02in subversive ballads and songs.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07One of the most popular was a thinly veiled satire of Napoleon,
0:08:07 > 0:08:10called The King Of Yvetot -
0:08:10 > 0:08:12apparently a real rabble-rouser
0:08:12 > 0:08:14on the streets of Paris, at the time.
0:08:14 > 0:08:15Let's do it!
0:08:15 > 0:08:16- That's good.- OK.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21TRANSLATION:
0:08:33 > 0:08:34HE SPEAKS FRENCH
0:08:36 > 0:08:38Oui. Ok.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44- HE BARKS - Like a dog!
0:08:44 > 0:08:47HE BARKS So I have to be a revolutionary...
0:08:47 > 0:08:49- Yes!- ..menacing dog.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51- It's terrible! - OK, it's the...
0:08:51 > 0:08:53- the revolution on the streets.- Yes.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58TRANSLATION:
0:09:11 > 0:09:15OK, it might not sound like political dynamite to our ears,
0:09:15 > 0:09:18but, by praising a good little king
0:09:18 > 0:09:20who travels round the country by donkey
0:09:20 > 0:09:23and thirsts for wine, not conquest,
0:09:23 > 0:09:26this song was very much a two-fingered salute
0:09:26 > 0:09:28to the power-hungry Napoleon.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31It's a very jolly, happy little song.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33Yes, it is happy
0:09:33 > 0:09:35and, at the same time, very revolutionary...
0:09:35 > 0:09:38- Why? What's going on? - ..very harsh, very...
0:09:42 > 0:09:44Yes.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46The...lazy king, a lazy king.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48So you have this lazy king -
0:09:48 > 0:09:51this fictionalised historical figure,
0:09:51 > 0:09:54sitting in bed with his cotton little bonnet on.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58Why did people think of Napoleon when they heard this song?
0:09:58 > 0:09:59I think there is a substitution -
0:09:59 > 0:10:01- une substitution...- Mmm-hmm.
0:10:01 > 0:10:03..of the figure of Napoleon and this...
0:10:03 > 0:10:06- And this fictional king in history. - ..yes, fictional king.
0:10:06 > 0:10:08So this is Beranger making fun of
0:10:08 > 0:10:11the most powerful man in France, Napoleon.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13Yes. Yes, it is very dangerous.
0:10:15 > 0:10:16Et la derniere...
0:10:16 > 0:10:19- Oh, OK.- ..est vraiment... Very, very happy!
0:10:19 > 0:10:22TRANSLATION:
0:10:43 > 0:10:44Yes!
0:10:44 > 0:10:45Woo!
0:10:45 > 0:10:48I feel like starting a revolution!
0:10:48 > 0:10:52The King Of Yvetot was a huge hit in Napoleonic France,
0:10:52 > 0:10:54and it made its writer a star.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59Pierre Jean de Beranger was a former banker and university clerk
0:10:59 > 0:11:03who became a thorn in the side of tyrants and kings.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08But, ironically, he started out in the pay of the Bonaparte family.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12Beranger grew up during the French Revolution.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16He even witnessed the storming of the Bastille as a child.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19Originally from a poor family, his financial situation was
0:11:19 > 0:11:23drastically improved when he was given 1,000 francs
0:11:23 > 0:11:25by Bonaparte's brother, Lucien,
0:11:25 > 0:11:27so that he'd compose songs for him.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30But Beranger was a man of the people.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33He simply couldn't help himself.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36Beranger's satires were perfectly timed.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39Shortly after he dared to mock the Emperor,
0:11:39 > 0:11:41Napoleon was ousted from power
0:11:41 > 0:11:44after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47But, to Beranger's horror,
0:11:47 > 0:11:53all the victorious Allies did was restore the monarchy to the throne.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56For the French people, it was a case of "plus ca change".
0:11:59 > 0:12:02And it was the people Beranger stood for.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04He turned his fire on the new regime,
0:12:04 > 0:12:08attacking corrupt officials, the church, even the King.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14The people loved him for it.
0:12:14 > 0:12:19His songs flourished in the bars and cafes of Paris.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21MAN SONGS JAUNTY SONG
0:12:22 > 0:12:25The authorities tried to clamp down,
0:12:25 > 0:12:29and Beranger was jailed for offence to public and religious morality.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31CELL DOOR SLAMS AND RATTLES
0:12:33 > 0:12:37But all it did was boost his anti-establishment credentials
0:12:37 > 0:12:38and his popularity.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45Beranger's genius was that he got the power of music
0:12:45 > 0:12:47as a universal language.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49When so many people were illiterate,
0:12:49 > 0:12:52putting his words together with popular tunes of the day
0:12:52 > 0:12:55caused a sensation.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58Beranger said that, "There was a need for a man who
0:12:58 > 0:13:03"spoke to the people in a language they understood and loved.
0:13:03 > 0:13:04"I was that man."
0:13:08 > 0:13:12Beranger was the founding father of the modern protest song.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16His talent for addressing the big issues of the day paved
0:13:16 > 0:13:20the way for 20th-century musicians like Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29But it wasn't just the songs of the street
0:13:29 > 0:13:31that acted as political weapons.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34In the 19th century,
0:13:34 > 0:13:38even the most rarefied music could inspire revolution.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02Today, an opera house might seem like the most refined,
0:14:02 > 0:14:04genteel place on earth
0:14:04 > 0:14:06but, in post-revolutionary France,
0:14:06 > 0:14:10these were places of intrigue and politics -
0:14:10 > 0:14:12even, sometimes, sedition.
0:14:14 > 0:14:20In the 1820s, opera was big business - the Hollywood of its day.
0:14:20 > 0:14:21Promoters were desperate
0:14:21 > 0:14:24to cater for the growing power base in society -
0:14:24 > 0:14:26the middle classes.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29But they had to walk a careful line -
0:14:29 > 0:14:32giving audiences the exciting stories they craved
0:14:32 > 0:14:35while censoring revolutionary themes,
0:14:35 > 0:14:37which were often the most popular.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39So they came up with a solution.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44The establishment instead encouraged a new form of opera -
0:14:44 > 0:14:48grand opera, featuring lavish sets and staging,
0:14:48 > 0:14:51and centred round historical stories that were
0:14:51 > 0:14:54far removed from the difficulties of contemporary politics.
0:14:57 > 0:15:02In 1828 the first major grand opera made its debut in Paris.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05La Muette de Portici - The Mute Girl of Portici.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12Composed by Daniel Auber, this was opera as epic spectacle.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16Complete with huge crowd scenes and special effects,
0:15:16 > 0:15:20it told the story of a heroic young fisherman who starts a revolution,
0:15:20 > 0:15:24and it climaxed with an exploding volcano.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38La Muette de Portici was intended as lavish entertainment
0:15:38 > 0:15:41for the middle classes.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44It ended up becoming part of not only musical
0:15:44 > 0:15:46but revolutionary history.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51And it proved you never can second-guess an audience.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57So it was political, it was historical, it was a love story,
0:15:57 > 0:16:01it had an exploding volcano - what's not to love?
0:16:01 > 0:16:03- That's right. - No wonder it was so popular.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05But this is a really sensitive time,
0:16:05 > 0:16:07so if this is a story about revolution,
0:16:07 > 0:16:10why did the censors pass it?
0:16:10 > 0:16:11It's a good question.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13They were only interested in the text and the libretto.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16And, essentially, it's a safe story
0:16:16 > 0:16:18because the revolution fails at the end,
0:16:18 > 0:16:23and it's set in distant time and distant place, geographically.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27But, of course, they didn't bank on the visual dimension and the music,
0:16:27 > 0:16:29and there's a particular number in the opera,
0:16:29 > 0:16:31sung by Masaniello, the revolutionary leader,
0:16:31 > 0:16:34and his comrade, Pietro, where they
0:16:34 > 0:16:37decide they're going to start the uprising.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40So this duet has a line from The Marseillaise -
0:16:40 > 0:16:42"Amour sacre de la Patrie."
0:16:42 > 0:16:46# Amour sacre de la Patrie. #
0:16:46 > 0:16:49"Sacred love for the Fatherland."
0:16:49 > 0:16:50Yes, exactly.
0:16:50 > 0:16:56And you can see it's peppered with words like "gloire", "victoire" -
0:16:56 > 0:16:57very, sort of, resonant stories -
0:16:57 > 0:17:01it's better to be dead than to be slaves.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04So it borrows a bit of the tune of The Marseillaise,
0:17:04 > 0:17:06the words of The Marseillaise,
0:17:06 > 0:17:08protest songs from the street that people would have known,
0:17:08 > 0:17:12and it scoops all of that up and takes it into the opera house.
0:17:12 > 0:17:13Exactly.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20The music of La Muette wasn't confined to the opera house.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22It spilled out into the streets,
0:17:22 > 0:17:26played by barrel organists and loved by the public.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34At a time when opposition to the monarchy was reaching boiling point,
0:17:34 > 0:17:36the rousing duet became a popular hit.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44"We are dancing on a volcano", said one French courtier.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49In July 1830, the volcano erupted -
0:17:49 > 0:17:52not just the one on the stage but now on the streets,
0:17:52 > 0:17:55as a new revolution broke out in Paris.
0:17:55 > 0:17:57The unpopular king was replaced
0:17:57 > 0:18:01with a more pliable, constitutional monarch,
0:18:01 > 0:18:05and La Muette now took on an even greater significance.
0:18:06 > 0:18:08This poster shows us
0:18:08 > 0:18:11the first performance after the July Revolution, at the opera,
0:18:11 > 0:18:15of La Muette, where they just played the first four acts -
0:18:15 > 0:18:18so they didn't play the fifth act where the revolution is put down.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22So it's an opera about a successful revolution.
0:18:22 > 0:18:24And it was given for the benefit of widows
0:18:24 > 0:18:28and injured from the July Revolution.
0:18:28 > 0:18:33So they actually changed the end of the opera to suit what was
0:18:33 > 0:18:34unfolding, daily, in front of them?
0:18:34 > 0:18:36That's right.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38And then the opera goes to Belgium,
0:18:38 > 0:18:41where it really does spark a revolution.
0:18:41 > 0:18:42Exactly.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44And this was the song that, reputedly,
0:18:44 > 0:18:46sparked the Belgian Revolution.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49It was this particular number that was chosen.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00In August 1830, a month after the revolution in Paris,
0:19:00 > 0:19:04rebels in Belgium chose a performance of La Muette de Portici
0:19:04 > 0:19:07to start a successful uprising of their own,
0:19:07 > 0:19:09overthrowing their Dutch rulers.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15The composer, Richard Wagner, later said,
0:19:15 > 0:19:19"Seldom has an artistic product stood in closer connection
0:19:19 > 0:19:21"with a world event."
0:19:30 > 0:19:34During the 19th century, the revolutionary waves which had
0:19:34 > 0:19:37started in Paris rippled throughout Europe.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44In Poland, in November 1830,
0:19:44 > 0:19:48inspired by the revolutions in France and Belgium,
0:19:48 > 0:19:51Polish nationalists rose up against foreign occupation.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56But their revolt was brutally crushed,
0:19:56 > 0:19:59and thousands of Poles were driven into exile.
0:20:04 > 0:20:09Following the defeat, one composer above all came to embody
0:20:09 > 0:20:11the Polish spirit in music
0:20:11 > 0:20:14and his people's longing for a free homeland.
0:20:14 > 0:20:15Frederic Chopin.
0:20:17 > 0:20:19Chopin wasn't a revolutionary,
0:20:19 > 0:20:23but he was a casualty of the insurrection and turmoil
0:20:23 > 0:20:26that was sweeping across Europe in the 1830s,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29one of many leading lights who fled from Poland,
0:20:29 > 0:20:33which was then under a repressive Russian regime.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37And he remained a fervent patriot for the rest of his life,
0:20:37 > 0:20:39but he never went back to his homeland,
0:20:39 > 0:20:43instead carrying with him a jar of precious Polish soil
0:20:43 > 0:20:46to Paris, where he stayed for the rest of his life.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00Like his precious jar of earth,
0:21:00 > 0:21:02Chopin always carried
0:21:02 > 0:21:05that yearning for his homeland with him in exile.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10And he embedded it in his music.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14Mining a rich tradition of Polish national dances,
0:21:14 > 0:21:17like the mazurka and the polonaise,
0:21:17 > 0:21:21Chopin transformed his longing for Poland into sound.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51I mean, it's a fantastic piece, it's so bouncy,
0:21:51 > 0:21:55it's got great energy to it, but what makes it Polish?
0:21:55 > 0:21:58Well, I think it's to do with the characterisation of the third beat.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02The rhythm is very, very close to a waltz, with the same oompah-pah,
0:22:02 > 0:22:06but it should have a very sharply snapped third beat.
0:22:06 > 0:22:08So, show me what you mean, then.
0:22:08 > 0:22:10What do I have to do?
0:22:13 > 0:22:16So it's not just a straight 1-2-3, 1-2-3...
0:22:18 > 0:22:19- Yes.- OK.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23- So that's what gives it its Polish kind of...- It's a kick.
0:22:23 > 0:22:25And in this particular mazurka, a swagger.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29So you've got this kind of snap, this pulse to the rhythm.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32What was it that Chopin was getting at
0:22:32 > 0:22:35with that sense of Polishness in his music?
0:22:35 > 0:22:37It was something that was very, very important to him
0:22:37 > 0:22:40and of course Poland at that time didn't have sovereignty -
0:22:40 > 0:22:45it had been absorbed by wicked neighbours, so to speak.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48It was a way of asserting an identity that would have
0:22:48 > 0:22:51appealed to the diaspora of Poles who were living in
0:22:51 > 0:22:53different parts of Europe at that time.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56So in that sense, his Polish dances are quite political.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00And how much did that chime with them, his music?
0:23:00 > 0:23:02Well, I think a very great deal.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05And it's clear that the mazurka - he wrote many, many, many
0:23:05 > 0:23:08of them in different styles - they were very,
0:23:08 > 0:23:12very important to him and they seemed to encapsulate
0:23:12 > 0:23:15his own feelings of longing and displacement.
0:23:15 > 0:23:17There's one mazurka in particular...
0:23:19 > 0:23:20..where it keeps breaking off
0:23:20 > 0:23:23and you're just left with one solitary voice.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26Here...
0:23:26 > 0:23:28disembodied.
0:23:31 > 0:23:32There's a sense of loneliness
0:23:32 > 0:23:36and displacement which he's actually written into the music.
0:23:45 > 0:23:47Oh, it rips your heart out!
0:23:47 > 0:23:50It does, because it takes you away from anywhere secure, this is music
0:23:50 > 0:23:54ultimately of insecurity, and I think in the mazurkas particularly,
0:23:54 > 0:23:56Chopin does this a lot.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59For me at least, I understand that as Chopin telling us that
0:23:59 > 0:24:02he is displaced and his people are displaced.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11Chopin's heart-rending music had the power to create nostalgia -
0:24:11 > 0:24:12that sense of a homeland
0:24:12 > 0:24:15and the torture of not being able to return there.
0:24:16 > 0:24:21But in death at least, the exile was reclaimed by his nation.
0:24:34 > 0:24:36When Chopin died, he was buried in Paris,
0:24:36 > 0:24:40but his heart was taken back by his sister to Warsaw.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43There, it was pickled in Cognac, preserved in an urn
0:24:43 > 0:24:47and buried inside a pillar in the Church of the Holy Cross.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49France could have his body,
0:24:49 > 0:24:52but Poland would always own Chopin's heart.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57Chopin did not liberate his people.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02But he did show how music could be not just beautiful,
0:25:02 > 0:25:05but also powerfully political.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08No wonder the composer Robert Schumann
0:25:08 > 0:25:12described Chopin's music as "cannons buried in flowers".
0:25:28 > 0:25:30Music had become a potent force,
0:25:30 > 0:25:33not only in inspiring revolution,
0:25:33 > 0:25:37but in fostering identity and nationhood.
0:25:37 > 0:25:42And it would play a crucial role in the building of new nation states.
0:25:46 > 0:25:50In the early 19th century, Germany was a collection
0:25:50 > 0:25:52of small but separate states.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55There was a rising tide in favour of uniting
0:25:55 > 0:25:58the German peoples in a single nation.
0:26:00 > 0:26:04In the land that had produced Beethoven and Bach,
0:26:04 > 0:26:08it was natural that a unifying symbol should emerge from music.
0:26:10 > 0:26:12And it did, in an opera,
0:26:12 > 0:26:15Der Freischutz, by the German composer Carl Maria von Weber.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25Weber wanted to create a new kind of opera, free
0:26:25 > 0:26:27from French and Italian influence,
0:26:27 > 0:26:29and so he wrote Der Freischutz,
0:26:29 > 0:26:34The Freeshooter, in German and with exactly the kind of storyline
0:26:34 > 0:26:37that his German-speaking audience would instantly recognise.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39After all,
0:26:39 > 0:26:42they'd grown up on Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, Hansel and Gretel -
0:26:42 > 0:26:44those tales of dark German forests
0:26:44 > 0:26:47and ghouls and ghostly pacts,
0:26:47 > 0:26:52and so Der Freischutz tells exactly one of those stories.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56We have boy meets girl - they fall madly in love, only he has to prove
0:26:56 > 0:27:00himself by shooting brilliantly in a marksman's competition.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02Things do not go well
0:27:02 > 0:27:06and so our hero retreats into the forest, scores some magic bullets
0:27:06 > 0:27:10and goes back hoping to win his beloved's hand, only, eurgh!
0:27:10 > 0:27:14It nearly goes pear-shaped and he almost shoots her, but...
0:27:14 > 0:27:16in the end, they live happily ever after
0:27:16 > 0:27:18and the baddies all go to hell.
0:27:18 > 0:27:19Phew!
0:27:22 > 0:27:28Der Freischutz opened during a craze for all things Gothic.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31It came in the wake of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
0:27:31 > 0:27:34and the first vampire novels,
0:27:34 > 0:27:39and the supernatural horror of this opera thrilled crowds across Europe.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47But most of all, it struck a deep chord with German audiences,
0:27:47 > 0:27:52who heard in it a recognisable sound of nationhood.
0:27:54 > 0:27:59So how did Weber create that sense of German-ness in music?
0:28:22 > 0:28:25Isn't that gorgeous? It's just...
0:28:25 > 0:28:30That, to me, instantly sets up Freischutz
0:28:30 > 0:28:32as this lovely, comforting world.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35I mean, this is the first few bars of the overture, the opening
0:28:35 > 0:28:38of the opera, and it's those gorgeous,
0:28:38 > 0:28:40lilting strings, lovely horns.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43It sets up this idea of a German mythology, which is
0:28:43 > 0:28:48one of the things that Freischutz absolutely sets out,
0:28:48 > 0:28:50to do, to set up this idea
0:28:50 > 0:28:53of what the good Germany is,
0:28:53 > 0:28:55and you have to remember,
0:28:55 > 0:28:58the idea of Germany was something that was gradually coalescing
0:28:58 > 0:29:01at that time, and this is also an attempt to
0:29:01 > 0:29:05manufacture, if you like, a German identity, so you have the woods,
0:29:05 > 0:29:09you have the hunters and this is all in the horns...
0:29:09 > 0:29:12This is an instrument that is associated with
0:29:12 > 0:29:15hunters in the wood, it's outdoorsy,
0:29:15 > 0:29:17it's beautiful and lovely.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45So he set up this idea of a lovely lilting German folkloric
0:29:45 > 0:29:47woodsman-y place,
0:29:47 > 0:29:52and immediately he brings in this much darker chord, which is this...
0:29:52 > 0:29:53HE BEGINS TO PLAY
0:30:04 > 0:30:06It's the classic...
0:30:06 > 0:30:08I mean, it's become the classic horror movie chord.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12This is the diminished seventh chord, which is short and scary.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14SHE REPEATS THE CHORD RAPIDLY
0:30:14 > 0:30:16- Exactly!- I'm petrified!- Exactly.
0:30:16 > 0:30:21And it's great for invoking these ideas or invoking these ideas
0:30:21 > 0:30:24of the supernatural or otherness,
0:30:24 > 0:30:28and of course this is the chord that Weber very specifically
0:30:28 > 0:30:31attaches to the baddie of the piece, to the
0:30:31 > 0:30:34evil spirit Samiel, who lives in the Wolf's Glen.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37It's a way of psychologically manipulating the audience
0:30:37 > 0:30:40and that's a revolutionary thing to do.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44How does Weber achieve that kind of atmosphere musically?
0:30:44 > 0:30:47Well, he does it using a technique that over a century later,
0:30:47 > 0:30:51film composers discover, which is he's not doing very much.
0:30:51 > 0:30:52SUZY LAUGHS
0:30:52 > 0:30:55He's using just very, very quiet strings
0:30:55 > 0:30:59and he's got a little wispy flute line which just rises
0:30:59 > 0:31:03and you just sense something is going to kick off soon.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19- He's sort of cranking up the tension.- Exactly.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23We don't see the demon, but we know he's there, because of the music.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33And it goes on like that and Weber gradually adds more
0:31:33 > 0:31:37instruments to the orchestra, he changes the tempo,
0:31:37 > 0:31:40he makes it faster, he makes it louder - it's a masterpiece
0:31:40 > 0:31:44of just gradually pacing a scene of increasing tension.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10In music before we've had natural storms,
0:32:10 > 0:32:12we've had dark places,
0:32:12 > 0:32:16but the Wolf's Glen scene is one of the first places where it's
0:32:16 > 0:32:20actually imbued with this emotion of fear and of, of...
0:32:20 > 0:32:22of evil.
0:32:22 > 0:32:24And what a brilliant contrast, then,
0:32:24 > 0:32:30with that perfect, rural, idyllic Germany and the otherly,
0:32:30 > 0:32:34alien outsider. You're a German, you belong to us,
0:32:34 > 0:32:37you're part of this lovely world - or you're in this dark place.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40Yeah, and look how that develops throughout the 19th century.
0:32:44 > 0:32:49Weber's vision proved to be an inspiration for one
0:32:49 > 0:32:52emerging German composer whose complex genius
0:32:52 > 0:32:54still resonates today...
0:32:54 > 0:32:55Richard Wagner.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01"O my magnificent German Fatherland...", Wagner wrote
0:33:01 > 0:33:03ecstatically about Weber's opera.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07"How must I love thee if for no other reason than that
0:33:07 > 0:33:13"Der Freischutz rose from thy soil - how happy I am to be German."
0:33:16 > 0:33:18Following in Weber's footsteps,
0:33:18 > 0:33:21Wagner believed that German nationhood could be
0:33:21 > 0:33:26best expressed through art rooted in national myth and legend.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31But for true German art to flourish,
0:33:31 > 0:33:35he believed society itself needed to be transformed.
0:33:44 > 0:33:49In 1848, the revolutionary wave that was sweeping across Europe
0:33:49 > 0:33:52hit Germany, and Wagner saw his chance.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58At the time, he was working as the music director
0:33:58 > 0:34:00at the Royal Saxon Court in Dresden.
0:34:02 > 0:34:03But in May 1849,
0:34:03 > 0:34:06he gave up the prestigious job
0:34:06 > 0:34:09and instead became an out-and-out revolutionary,
0:34:09 > 0:34:12one of the leaders of an anti-royalist uprising in the city.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22When revolution broke out on the streets of Dresden,
0:34:22 > 0:34:25Wagner threw himself eagerly into the fray.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28He'd already hosted political meetings at his house,
0:34:28 > 0:34:31but now he was ready to get his hands dirty with
0:34:31 > 0:34:34the business of insurrection, manning the barricades
0:34:34 > 0:34:36and even making hand grenades.
0:34:36 > 0:34:40The Dresden police issued this warrant for his arrest,
0:34:40 > 0:34:42describing Wagner as,
0:34:42 > 0:34:46"37-38 years old, middling height,
0:34:46 > 0:34:48"brown hair with glasses."
0:34:48 > 0:34:51Could have been anybody, really, which is why Wagner escaped,
0:34:51 > 0:34:55fleeing on a false passport into exile in Switzerland.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08Wagner had a narrow escape.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12The uprising failed, many of his revolutionary accomplices
0:35:12 > 0:35:16were arrested and imprisoned, one even received a death sentence.
0:35:17 > 0:35:22It would be 12 years before Wagner could return to his homeland.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27As the dust of the Dresden Revolution settled,
0:35:27 > 0:35:31Wagner spent his years of exile deep in thought -
0:35:31 > 0:35:34perhaps violent uprising wasn't the answer.
0:35:34 > 0:35:39Maybe his composer's pen would prove to be mightier than the sword.
0:35:41 > 0:35:47So he put down the guns and instead picked up the books.
0:35:51 > 0:35:57Wagner wasn't just a composer. He was a true thinker and intellectual.
0:35:57 > 0:36:01This is his vast library - just part of an enormous collection
0:36:01 > 0:36:04of books, and it shows us a voracious reader,
0:36:04 > 0:36:06particularly of philosophy.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09Nietzsche, Kant, Hegel -
0:36:09 > 0:36:13all of them fuelled Wagner's desire for a socialist utopia.
0:36:15 > 0:36:17Inspired by his studies,
0:36:17 > 0:36:22Wagner decided he was the man to build utopia on earth.
0:36:23 > 0:36:27He set out on a revolutionary mission of extraordinary ambition,
0:36:27 > 0:36:33to redeem corrupt humanity as he saw it through the power of his own art.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39He would bring together music, words, costume, lighting, scenery
0:36:39 > 0:36:43- a feast for all the senses that would overwhelm
0:36:43 > 0:36:48his audience, bringing them to a new state of enlightenment.
0:36:48 > 0:36:52And for these total artworks to have their full redemptive impact,
0:36:52 > 0:36:56Wagner decided he needed a special performance space,
0:36:56 > 0:37:00free from the distractions of the wider world.
0:37:00 > 0:37:05He chose not an urban centre, like Munich or Berlin,
0:37:05 > 0:37:07but the remote town of Bayreuth in upper Bavaria.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12Today, Bayreuth is Wagner town.
0:37:12 > 0:37:14His likeness is everywhere.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19The key building is not in the town centre, but perched
0:37:19 > 0:37:23high above on a hill, the Festspielhaus -
0:37:23 > 0:37:25Wagner's Festival House,
0:37:25 > 0:37:29where every detail was built to his exacting specifications
0:37:29 > 0:37:34to showcase his music and provide a transcendent experience,
0:37:34 > 0:37:36if not a comfortable one.
0:37:44 > 0:37:49People wait for years to get hold of tickets for this place,
0:37:49 > 0:37:52despite the fact that it's a byword for discomfort.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56There are no armrests, virtually no padding on the hard wooden seats,
0:37:56 > 0:37:58certainly no air conditioning
0:37:58 > 0:38:01in the stifling hot Bayreuth summers.
0:38:01 > 0:38:05And once you're in, you are in it for the long haul -
0:38:05 > 0:38:09six or so hours of bottom-numbing entertainment.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12Legend has it that if you die during a performance here, as people
0:38:12 > 0:38:17have done, no-one's going to call an ambulance until the interval.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21It's all about the music and the house that Wagner built.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27Wagner made all sorts of new theatrical innovations.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33Nothing is allowed to get in the way of what's happening onstage,
0:38:33 > 0:38:38even the orchestra is hidden in a specially designed sunken pit.
0:38:40 > 0:38:43The wooden walls and ceiling improved the acoustics.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47Everyone here got an equally good view.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51Unlike the Paris Opera,
0:38:51 > 0:38:54the house lights were dimmed as the music started.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58After all, you were here to see the performance, not to be seen.
0:39:32 > 0:39:37Bayreuth is part theatre, part temple, a sacred space
0:39:37 > 0:39:42dedicated to the transformative power of Wagner's total artworks.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05After five years of planning,
0:40:05 > 0:40:10the first Bayreuth Festival opened in the summer of 1876.
0:40:12 > 0:40:17Just a few years earlier, Wagner had been a wanted man,
0:40:17 > 0:40:20chased out of his homeland as a traitor.
0:40:20 > 0:40:23Now, he was fawned on by the crowned heads of Europe,
0:40:23 > 0:40:26including the German Emperor, Wilhelm I.
0:40:27 > 0:40:31Through the power of his music and the scale of his ambition,
0:40:31 > 0:40:34Wagner had transformed the role of the artist in society.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39He wrote, "Though it was not unknown for an artist to be
0:40:39 > 0:40:41"summoned before an emperor and princes,
0:40:41 > 0:40:46"no-one could recall that an emperor and princes had ever come to him."
0:41:00 > 0:41:04Today, people still travel from across the globe in their thousands
0:41:04 > 0:41:10to this remote temple to experience Wagner's music as he intended it.
0:41:10 > 0:41:12WOMAN SINGS
0:41:49 > 0:41:52Wagner lived to see Germany unified in the 1870s.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59But he had set his sights on a revolutionary musical mission
0:41:59 > 0:42:01that transcended borders.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05Had his ambition to redeem humanity been a success?
0:42:09 > 0:42:10Here we are in the Great Hall
0:42:10 > 0:42:12and there he is, Richard Wagner.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14His bust, at least.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17So Wagner is a man who conceived of a better society,
0:42:17 > 0:42:20- tries in some way to bring that about...- Yes.- ..through his operas.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23How much would you say he was successful in that aim?
0:42:24 > 0:42:29Um, he certainly was not successful in the sense that he made
0:42:29 > 0:42:31a specific society change
0:42:31 > 0:42:33or anything like that,
0:42:33 > 0:42:36but he was probably very successful
0:42:36 > 0:42:37in the sense that his art is
0:42:37 > 0:42:40still very relevant until today.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43So I think in that sense, they were successful.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46He's as much a writer as he is a composer.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49And he commits himself to all sorts of views.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53- Very virulent anti-Semitism, vegetarianism...- Mm-hm.
0:42:53 > 0:42:57How much is he then an easy figure to make sense of?
0:42:57 > 0:43:01Yes, he's certainly not an easy figure, but he is also
0:43:01 > 0:43:04representative of the 19th century - a child of his time, I think.
0:43:10 > 0:43:13Wagner created lasting musical monuments
0:43:13 > 0:43:18and a powerful cult of personality that lives on today.
0:43:19 > 0:43:23But despite his attempts, his music didn't achieve
0:43:23 > 0:43:28universal enlightenment or transform German society.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36Ironically, it was a composer with little interest in politics,
0:43:36 > 0:43:40born 500 miles to the south of Germany, in 1813,
0:43:40 > 0:43:42the very same year as Wagner,
0:43:42 > 0:43:47who would become one of the great heroes of 19th-century nationalism.
0:43:49 > 0:43:51Like Wagner in Germany,
0:43:51 > 0:43:55this composer grew up in an Italy that didn't yet exist on the map.
0:43:59 > 0:44:02Instead, it was a collection of small states
0:44:02 > 0:44:04dominated by foreign powers,
0:44:04 > 0:44:07and its people yearned for unity and independence.
0:44:09 > 0:44:13They found their inspiration in the great opera composer,
0:44:13 > 0:44:16Giuseppe Verdi.
0:44:16 > 0:44:21Today, Verdi is still honoured for his political legacy in Italy.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24To find out more, I've come to his home region of Parma,
0:44:24 > 0:44:29where I've gained access to one of Italy's most exclusive clubs.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33- MEN SING:- # Va, pensiero
0:44:33 > 0:44:38# Sull'ali dorate
0:44:40 > 0:44:48# Va, ti posa sui clivi Sui colli... #
0:44:48 > 0:44:53With only 27 members, to join, not only do you have to be invited,
0:44:53 > 0:44:56you have to wait for someone else to die.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08Today, the club is celebrating the 202nd anniversary of the birth
0:45:08 > 0:45:09of their hero...
0:45:12 > 0:45:15..by singing Verdi's anthem to freedom, Va, Pensiero,
0:45:15 > 0:45:17from his opera Nabucco.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26# Di Sionne
0:45:26 > 0:45:31# Le torri atterrate... #
0:45:33 > 0:45:35Grazie, grazie mille!
0:45:40 > 0:45:42"Un Giorno di Regno".
0:45:42 > 0:45:45'Each member takes the name of one of Verdi's 27 operas.'
0:45:47 > 0:45:48Hello!
0:45:48 > 0:45:50'Whichever one happens to be vacant.'
0:45:50 > 0:45:52- Fabio Macbeth.- Macbeth. Suzy!
0:45:52 > 0:45:55- Falstaff.- Buongiorno!
0:45:55 > 0:45:57- Nicandro Nabucco. - Nabucco, OK.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00Angelo Traviata.
0:46:00 > 0:46:02- Mi chiamo Suzy... - Stefano Aida.
0:46:02 > 0:46:04Oh, hello, Aida, good to meet you!
0:46:04 > 0:46:08'I can't help noticing there's rather a shortage of women here.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11'Unless you count La traviata and Aida, of course.'
0:46:11 > 0:46:14Thank you so much for having me here. Stefano,
0:46:14 > 0:46:16can you tell me, does Verdi to you
0:46:16 > 0:46:20feel like the sound of Italy,
0:46:20 > 0:46:22does he feel very Italian? And why?
0:46:34 > 0:46:37It's that hot Latin kind of anima,
0:46:37 > 0:46:40- spirit, in your DNA.- Esatto.
0:46:50 > 0:46:52Jealousy, love, hatred...
0:46:55 > 0:46:58'It's not exactly the Illuminati,
0:46:58 > 0:47:03'but there is one secret - the lurid drinks, so coloured in honour
0:47:03 > 0:47:07'of Verdi - a composer whose name in English is Joseph Green.'
0:47:07 > 0:47:10Segreto! (Secret recipe!)
0:47:13 > 0:47:15- No!- No!- Acqua, acqua - solo acqua.
0:47:15 > 0:47:16It's only water?
0:47:18 > 0:47:20Viva Verdi! Cin cin!
0:47:22 > 0:47:24Oh, that's not water!
0:47:32 > 0:47:37The Club of the 27 aren't the only Italians to revere Verdi.
0:47:39 > 0:47:40The Va, Pensiero chorus
0:47:40 > 0:47:44has become almost a second national anthem in Italy.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49But this music was very nearly not composed at all.
0:47:54 > 0:47:58It was born of the darkest moment in Verdi's life.
0:47:59 > 0:48:01By the time he was 27 years old,
0:48:01 > 0:48:04Verdi has lost his young wife
0:48:04 > 0:48:08and two infant children to sudden death from disease.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12Thrown into depression, he resolved to give up composing.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16But fortune intervened.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19Verdi was offered the chance to write a new opera,
0:48:19 > 0:48:20telling the biblical story of
0:48:20 > 0:48:23the exile of the Jews from their homeland.
0:48:23 > 0:48:26Initially, he refused, said he wasn't interested,
0:48:26 > 0:48:29but he did take the book home and he later said he threw
0:48:29 > 0:48:35it down on his desk and one page opened - the words leapt out at him.
0:48:35 > 0:48:37"Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate" -
0:48:37 > 0:48:40one line of the poetry in particular
0:48:40 > 0:48:44fired his imagination, it read, "O mia patria -
0:48:44 > 0:48:46"si bella e perduta."
0:48:46 > 0:48:50"O my homeland - so beautiful and lost".
0:48:50 > 0:48:54Verdi was captivated and his opera Nabucco was born.
0:49:07 > 0:49:10The premiere of Nabucco took place here,
0:49:10 > 0:49:12at La Scala in Milan
0:49:12 > 0:49:15on the 9th of March 1842.
0:49:15 > 0:49:19Verdi was so nervous that when the first ovation erupted,
0:49:19 > 0:49:21he thought it was a cheer of derision.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26He needn't have worried - the opera was an instant triumph.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41At the moment when Italians were most desperately craving
0:49:41 > 0:49:42their own Italy,
0:49:42 > 0:49:46an opera telling the story of an oppressed people,
0:49:46 > 0:49:48yearning to find their place in the world
0:49:48 > 0:49:50was bound to be a sure-fire hit.
0:49:50 > 0:49:55Verdi himself admitted that Nabucco had been born under a lucky star.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07Verdi was convinced that Italy could only flourish
0:50:07 > 0:50:12if it was both unified and free from foreign control.
0:50:12 > 0:50:17And in 1848, as revolution broke out across Europe, he believed
0:50:17 > 0:50:22Italy's moment to throw off foreign occupation had finally come.
0:50:24 > 0:50:29"Honour to all of Italy", he wrote, "the hour of her liberation is here.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32"There cannot be any music welcome to Italian ears
0:50:32 > 0:50:36"in 1848 except the music of the cannon."
0:50:38 > 0:50:41But it was the foreign cannons that prevailed
0:50:41 > 0:50:44and Italian hopes were ruthlessly dashed.
0:50:44 > 0:50:46The revolutions might have failed,
0:50:46 > 0:50:50but Verdi's career soared to new heights.
0:50:50 > 0:50:54He had a genius for putting into music the passions
0:50:54 > 0:50:59and frailties of human life, stories of real people, far from the gods
0:50:59 > 0:51:02and monsters of somebody like Richard Wagner.
0:51:02 > 0:51:06Verdi's success with operas such as Rigoletto and La traviata
0:51:06 > 0:51:08made him rich - enough to buy
0:51:08 > 0:51:12this vast estate in the Parma countryside.
0:51:13 > 0:51:18He was here when, in 1859, a new war of liberation broke out
0:51:18 > 0:51:22and the fighting reached almost to the borders of his land.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37Verdi was hardly a brother in arms, though.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41He spent many of the revolutionary years here at his lavish estate,
0:51:41 > 0:51:43doing up his des res.
0:51:43 > 0:51:47The only action these guns ever saw was on one of his
0:51:47 > 0:51:50many hunting trips, shooting ducks.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58Unlike Wagner, Verdi wasn't an active revolutionary who manned
0:51:58 > 0:52:02the barricades and spent his evenings fashioning hand grenades.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06His weapons were the pen
0:52:06 > 0:52:12and the baton - and, in a final twist of fortune, even his name.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27Now, he'd been a supporter of Victor Emmanuel, the man who was
0:52:27 > 0:52:31frontrunner to become king if and when Italy was unified.
0:52:31 > 0:52:35So when "Viva Verdi" was scrawled on walls everywhere,
0:52:35 > 0:52:37it had a double meaning.
0:52:37 > 0:52:39Yes, it was a celebration of the composer,
0:52:39 > 0:52:46but it also read Viva - "long live" - Vittorio Emanuele, Re D'Italia.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy.
0:52:51 > 0:52:56And in 1861, an independent Italy was finally declared with
0:52:56 > 0:53:00King Victor Emmanuel crowned head of the new nation.
0:53:03 > 0:53:08To find out how history and a dose of good luck were on Verdi's side,
0:53:08 > 0:53:12I've come to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18Started in the 1860s, to celebrate the new Italy,
0:53:18 > 0:53:22and named after its first king, it was designed to link
0:53:22 > 0:53:27symbolically the two most important buildings in the city -
0:53:27 > 0:53:29the opera house and the cathedral.
0:53:33 > 0:53:38How much is Verdi intentionally injecting a kind of national
0:53:38 > 0:53:42Italian flavour into his music and how much is that just a question
0:53:42 > 0:53:44of the fact that the audience desperately wanted
0:53:44 > 0:53:47- to hear something Italian? - I think it's both.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51He is willing to put in his operas music that is stirring,
0:53:51 > 0:53:54that is about building of nations,
0:53:54 > 0:53:55uniting of people,
0:53:55 > 0:53:58political discourse, but also
0:53:58 > 0:54:00the audience was particularly attuned
0:54:00 > 0:54:03to what might transpire in his operas.
0:54:03 > 0:54:08So how willing a participant is Verdi in this sort of groundswell,
0:54:08 > 0:54:10this tidal wave of nationalism?
0:54:10 > 0:54:12He definitely was a willing participant,
0:54:12 > 0:54:16he knew that he was so famous that people listened to him.
0:54:16 > 0:54:20He didn't say much, but he was there when it mattered,
0:54:20 > 0:54:25he was there particularly in those crucial years, 1859 to 1860,
0:54:25 > 0:54:291861, when most of Italy was unified.
0:54:29 > 0:54:32So Verdi is a genius composer, there's no doubt about that.
0:54:32 > 0:54:37But how much do you also think it's true that he's just lucky,
0:54:37 > 0:54:40he comes about as Italy needs a massive hero?
0:54:40 > 0:54:43Absolutely, that's EXACTLY what it is.
0:54:43 > 0:54:47He comes about at the right time and he's the right man for the job.
0:54:47 > 0:54:51He's the most famous Italian artist and the nation needs him
0:54:51 > 0:54:54to build itself and he knows it, and he runs with it.
0:54:54 > 0:54:56He definitely runs with it.
0:54:58 > 0:55:03Verdi was there just when Italy most needed a unifying cultural symbol
0:55:03 > 0:55:05to bring the nation together.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09It's something the Italian people have never forgotten.
0:55:14 > 0:55:19At the annual festival to celebrate Verdi's music, held here
0:55:19 > 0:55:23in Parma, the centrepiece is a chorus of Va, Pensiero.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29That anthem of national belonging,
0:55:29 > 0:55:33sung from one generation to the next since Verdi's time.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44Verdi's music had helped to forge modern Italy.
0:55:46 > 0:55:51It remains to this day a symbol of the best of Italian culture.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08MUSIC: Ma Vlast by Smetana
0:56:13 > 0:56:17In the 19th century, music had played a vital role in the
0:56:17 > 0:56:23surge of nationalism and revolution that forged modern Europe.
0:56:23 > 0:56:26It bound together the citizens of new nations like Italy
0:56:26 > 0:56:31and Germany and helped heal the old wounds of revolution
0:56:31 > 0:56:33in countries such as France.
0:56:38 > 0:56:42And, at the century's end, as Europe moved from an age
0:56:42 > 0:56:46of violent uprising to one of global commerce and empire,
0:56:46 > 0:56:50in place of the slogans of "revolution or death",
0:56:50 > 0:56:53now came national pride and stability.
0:56:55 > 0:57:00In 1889, Paris marked the 100-year anniversary
0:57:00 > 0:57:05of the French Revolution with a huge international exhibition.
0:57:05 > 0:57:08The Eiffel Tower was the centrepiece
0:57:08 > 0:57:11and there were rousing renditions of The Marseillaise.
0:57:12 > 0:57:15Once banned as dangerously subversive,
0:57:15 > 0:57:19it was now restored as France's national hymn.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25The Marseillaise was no longer the musical equivalent
0:57:25 > 0:57:29of a Molotov cocktail - an incitement to revolution.
0:57:29 > 0:57:33Now, it was the proudly patriotic anthem of the new France,
0:57:33 > 0:57:38a country eager to take its place on the modern international stage.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42# Aux armes, citoyens
0:57:43 > 0:57:48# Formez vos bataillons
0:57:48 > 0:57:53# Marchons, marchons!
0:57:53 > 0:57:57# Qu'un sang impur
0:57:57 > 0:58:03# Abreuve nos sillons! #
0:58:06 > 0:58:09MUSIC: Also Sprach Zarathustra by Johann Strauss
0:58:09 > 0:58:13In the final episode, I'll discover how music
0:58:13 > 0:58:16was at the forefront of another great revolution...
0:58:18 > 0:58:22..the sweeping transformation of technology.
0:58:23 > 0:58:26With new industrially manufactured instruments...
0:58:28 > 0:58:31..and futuristic ways of listening.
0:58:34 > 0:58:39MUSIC: Echoes of France (La Marseillaise) by Django Reinhardt