Angela Maria Blasi

Set in classical antiquity, Mozart's Il re pastore tells of the thwarted love of Aminta (the innocent "shepherd king" of the title) for the well-born Elisa, and that of the nobleman Agenore for the deposed tyrant's daughter Tamiri. No less a figure than Alexander the Great resolves these conflicts of private passion and public status. First performed in Salzburg in 1775, Sir Neville Marriner conducts a top international cast in this 1989 production of the opera from Salzburg's Landestheater.

The film tells the story of a love affair between a poor poet and an equally poor seamstress in 19th century Paris.