Olivier Messiaen

In memory of the countless victims of armed conflict, Patricia Kopatchinskaja presents a concert conceived as a mosaic of deeply moving music and texts from a wide variety of sources and authors. The violinist breaks down the traditional barrier between the stage and the audience.

Messiaen's breathtakingly intense opera on the life of St Francis of Assisi stars Rod Gilfry as the charismatic visionary, beguiled by the glory of creation, yet fearful of both its imperfections and its transience. Pierre Audi's thoroughly engaging production for The Netherlands Opera brings out the naive imagery, the grandeur, and above all the vast tenderness of the resplendent score, revealed as a grandiose ritual with the meaning and purpose of life as its central theme. But the real drama of the work takes place in the orchestra. Elevated to stupendous heights by the sublimely inspired Ingo Metzmacher, The Hague Philharmonic and the Chorus of De Nederlandse Opera combine forces with a brilliant cast to produce the finest possible musical pilgrimage.

A young girl, Benilde, so protected by her religious family that she seemingly knows nothing about procreation, insists that her mysterious pregnancy is a miracle; however, her distressed bourgeois family decides that Benilde has lost her mind.

French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard plays pieces from Olivier Messiaen's "Catalogue d'oiseaux" in Berlin's St Canisius Church.

The story of a young man who lives alone in his house, and his indifference and solitude with the world around him.

"Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum", the work by Olivier Messiaen, was a commission by the Minister of Cultural Affairs André Malraux and was to be performed on the 20 June 1965 at Chartres Cathedral, in the presence of President Charles de Gaulle. This documentary takes place during the rehearsal on the prior day.

Under the baton of charismatic Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Orchestre de Paris performs Olivier Messiaen's most famous work: The ambitious and beguiling Turangalîla-Symphonie.

A workshop film made with a group of students of the Pietro Zorutti School in Palmanova, Esercizi di Cinema is an experimental adaptation of Raymond Queneau's book Exercises in Style.