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John Bridcut

Fiona Morris

Cat Dixon

Elgar: The Man Behind the Mask

Documentaries

Factual: Life Stories

Music: Classical

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

12/11/2010

BBC Four - Elgar: The Man Behind the Mask

Film looking at how Edward Elgar's image of hearty nobility was deliberately contrived.

Documentary showing the apparently self-confident Edward Elgar as a brilliant but neurotic musician with a chip on his shoulder about his lowly origins and his Catholic religion.

The composer of Land of Hope and Glory is often regarded as the quintessential English gentleman, but Edward Elgar's image of hearty nobility was deliberately contrived. In reality, he was the son of a shopkeeper, who was awkward, nervous, self-pitying and often rude, while his marriage to his devoted wife Alice was complicated by romantic entanglements which fired his creative energy.  

In this revelatory portrait of a musical genius, John Bridcut explores the secret conflicts in Elgar's nature which produced some of Britain's greatest music.

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