Videos

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What happens when a fictional child drops into the life of one of the world's great composers?  Find out in The Composers' Specials, an award-winning series of six children's videos from Devine Entertainment.  Each VHS video is an exciting story accompanied by music from the masters - a music video! $19.95 each.

Bach's Fight for Freedom

The chapel organist, Johann Sebastien Bach, is enraged. It's bad enough his boss, Duke Wilhelm, stifles his creativity. Now the bumbling fool has given him a servant he suspects is a spy! But soon, the temperamental composer recognizes a kindred soul in his new 10-year-old assistant, Frederick. For both know too well what it is like not to be able to follow your dream. Set in 1717, Bach's 32 year, Bach's Fight for Freedom passionately argues that the only master you can serve faithfully is your own heart.

It is 1742 and we are in Dublin, where 10-year-old Jamie O'Flaherty and the brilliant composer, George Frederic Handel live. Jamie, who comes from a very poor family, has been caught stealing and is in jail. Handel, whose career is failing, needs his newest composition to be a big hit. By a stroke of destiny, the young boy and the composer become unlikely allies. Handel gets Jamie out of jail and the boy lends his golden voice to the first performance of Messiah. This video production is filled with many of Handel's most glorious musical works, and the captivating story reminds us that when you believe in yourself, you can make comebacks in life and often get one last chance.

Rossini's Ghost

In a kitchen in Italy in 1862, little Reliana helps her grandmother Rosalie make pasta sauce. As steam swirls magically through the kitchen, Rosalie argues with her oldest friend Martina and tells the story of an opera composer they once both knew. Soon, Reliana finds herself transported through time back to a theater in Rome nearly 50 years earlier. She is invisible to everyone but the composer, Signor Rossini. She watches in alarm as on of the singers puts a curse on the production and everything begins to go wrong. Set in 1816, the year The Barber of Seville has its disastrous premiere, Rossini's Ghost is the story of three women who learn that friendship, like opera (or a great pasta sauce) requires nurturing, patience, and time.

Strauss: the King of Three-Quarter Time

The year is 1868; the city, Vienna; the music, exhilarating. Yet, all is not well with Johann Strauss, Jr., the darling of waltzing Vienna. Haunted by the constant pressure to outdo himself with each new composition, Strauss meets Nicholas, a humble stable boy, who fears his brutal stepfather. To their surprise, the composer and the boy find in one another a piece of life's emotional puzzle, discovering the healing bond of trust and embarking on a collaboration that will be music to the world's ears.

Liszt's Rhapsody

Rich and successful, a dashing young musical superstar so adored that women faint when they meet him in the street, Franz Liszt is restless. He knows that something is missing in his glamorous life as the world's great concert pianist. He meets Josy, a naturally gifted young Gypsy street musician, and subsequently wager that he can turn Josy into a world-class musician. The bet turns into a mighty struggle of wills - the worldly sophisticate against the resourceful Gypsy boy and a conflict of freedom vs. discipline, heart vs. brain, passion vs. technique. Set in 1846, Liszt's Rhapsody celebrates the miracle of talent and the triumph of dreams fulfilled. 

Bizet's Dream

Twelve-year-old Michelle Marin doesn't like her piano teacher. Monsieur Bizet is irritable, forgetful, aloof - distracted by a failing marriage and the rigors of composing his new opera. But as the composer begins to tell Michelle the story of the gypsy Carmen, her imagination is captured. For, just is in Bizet's opera, her soldier father is stationed in Seville, and she fears he will never return. Set in Paris in 1875, Bizet's Dream is the story of an unusual friendship between two people who share the ability to feel life deeply and a beautifully filmed testament to the power of music to set those feelings free.

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Last modified November 12, 1998.