THE MUSIC LOVERS

'''The Music Lovers''' is a 1970 biopic of the 19th century Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, as conceived by maverick director Ken Russell.

Contents

Plot summary

Cultural impact

Plot summary

The young Tchaikovsky (Chamberlain) sees his mother die horribly, being forcibly immersed in scalding water as a supposed cure for cholera. He is haunted by the scene throughout his musical career. Despite his difficulty in establishing his musical reputation, Madame Nadezhda von Meck (Telezynka) becomes his patron. He weds Antonina Milyukova (Jackson) but is unable to consummate the marriage because of his homosexuality. The dynamics of his life lead to deteriorating mental health and the loss of von Meck's patronage. He dies of cholera after deliberately drinking contaminated water.

Cultural impact

The film was one of a series of Russell's films delineating the lives of classical composers from an often idiosyncratic standpoint. Other notable films in the series include: ''Elgar'' (1962), ''Mahler'' (1974) and ''Lisztomania'' (1975).
Focusing on Tchaikovsky's homosexuality, it tells the story of his musical life refracted through his childhood memories of the violent death of his mother, under treatment for cholera by quack physicians, and through his frustrated marriage to Antonina Milyukova. The film employs scenes of cruelty, violence and sexuality in a way that is simultaneously graphic, camp and arch, in order to represent Tchaikovsky's supposed mental anguish and instability. Critical reception in the 1970s was cool. The film has been much criticised as an inaccurate depiction of the life of the composer, but remains an exhilarating fantasia and contains many fine sequences.