Seville had the reputation in the 18th century of being populated by hot-blooded men keeping their wives out of sight behind walls, grilles, screens, behind those louvered windows called jalousies. Jealousy! The Marriage of Figaro is the gentle war of the sexes. It is the harsh war of classes.

In 1869, the inauguration of the Suez Canal took place. The King of Egypt, Ismail Pasha, was very proud, and rightfully so: spanning 193 km, the canal allows ships to avoid circumnavigating the entire continent of Africa! The canal is long, wide, and deep. Verdi composed an opera for the occasion that was long, profound, and magnificent.

In general, Wagner's image is more commonly associated with the world of myths and legends in his tetralogy: Valkyries, forests, gods, men, and horses. In his ten mature operas, he writes a small comedy only once... which is still four and a half hours long

"One can make good music with other people's chords." So, throughout his own musical journey, listening only to his own pleasure, Francis Poulenc welcomes in... a lot of influences: the atmosphere of a fair, Stravinsky's early days in Paris, Mozart whom he venerates, ragtime, the beginnings of jazz...

In his youth, Brahms burns quite a few scores with which he is dissatisfied. At the age of twenty, the surviving scores are reduced to a few songs and pieces for solo piano. But - miraculously! - a first piece of chamber music resists the flames, perhaps precisely because it is crafted with a fire that Brahms respects.

In 1963, an eccentric early-career artist composes a symphonic poem for a hundred metronomes: twenty minutes of metronome beats set at different speeds. The TV channel that had planned to broadcast the concert, upon learning the content of the 'score,' cancels it and replaces it with a football match.

During the 19th century, musicians told a lot of stories. Debussy, somewhat weary of romantic narratives with heroes, characters, and self-centered individual destinies, arrives and decides, in his very personal music, not to include human beings.

The propanesulfinique acide is the compound that forms from sulfenic acid when, taking an onion and a knife, you tear the slice of the former with the blade of the latter. It is what makes us cry. These are tears of molecular chemistry, completely pointless and useless. Quite the opposite of those shed by Samuel Barber's Adagio.

To make it seem like Symbolism is THE trend of the moment among Russian writers, Valery Bryusov writes Symbolist texts under a multitude of pseudonyms. He even goes so far as to publish an Anthology of Russian Symbolists in 3 volumes... where, in reality, everything is by him. This includes the novel 'The Angel of Fire

Bradyséisme, derived from the Greek 'bradys-' meaning slow and the French 'séisme' meaning earthquake, is a volcanic phenomenon that causes the ground to rise or fall. Pouzzoles, north of Naples, is one of the three places in the world where this phenomenon is observed, and it is there that Pergolesi composed his final commission in 1736

The best way to walk is to put one foot in front of the other and then repeat. Combining on the score the dots of detached chords and the ties of tied chords that Schubert asks of the pianist, it's feet that walk and lift, yes, but dragging themselves.

"Majorcans are big brutes, lazy, thieves." This is the affectionate portrait that George Sand paints in her travel diary. And if there's one thing that absolutely horrifies her, it's the Majorcans' passion for pigs.

"What you need, Edouard, is a good war." This is what Désiré Joseph Lalo, a captain of infantry who fought under Napoleon, used to repeat to his son almost every day. He insisted that Edouard pursue a career in the military. However, Edouard aspires to a career in music...

"Once upon a time, there was a little composer who stood at one meter sixty-one. From his tiny 48 kilograms, the little man was, according to his friends, one of the great hopes of the grand music of the great French nation. But then, one fine day, Maurice showed them his latest little sketches at his place...

"The terrible life into which I have embarked! To live only for emotions, and to see the darkest thoughts succeed a great joy. It's the wheel of Ixion, with too few moments of rest," wrote Guillaume Lekeu to his mother in 1893. The young man, born in Heusy near Verviers near Liège near Brussels near Paris, is not the calm type...

A brass band is good... two brass bands are better. When he grows up in Connecticut in the late 19th century, young Charles Ives has a double stroke of luck: his father is a musician AND open-minded. George encourages his son in the most bizarre musical experiments that come to his mind.

Wherever he went, the composer Richard Strauss had an endearing tendency to introduce himself with his resume. A self-awareness that one can sense throughout his tone poems, of which he is often the hero: Don Juan, Don Quixote, or... Zarathustra.

At a fair in Soho, London. Beggars beg, thieves steal, whores act like whores. A singer of macabre ballads sings... a macabre ballad. It is there that an opera is performed that the poor can afford: The Threepenny Opera.

"Spring has arrived," wrote Bela Bartok in 1944. "The birds are intoxicated by it and sing concerts like I've never heard before." His Piano Concerto No. 3 will have at its center the piercing song of the towhee, an American sparrow.

Fifteen years after the Second World War, another war - ideological, this time - is underway: the war of the memory of the war. Both the Americans and the Russians intend to be remembered in the best light. Shostakovich is heavily invited to write the music for a film glorifying the actions of the Russians in 1945.

Systole and diastole: in two beats, the heart contracts and relaxes; this constant and hypnotic pulsation, Reich will extend it to a performance lasting over an hour. Not once will it speed up, slow down, or pause.

In 1985, setting out to assault scrapyards, garages, and factories, the young Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg collects everything that makes noise. But after the iron feast, the hangover. Lindberg composes almost nothing during the following two years. His style, completely rethought, will be reborn transformed and organic...