Opera
Synopsis
In sixteenth-century Rome, the aging composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina is asked by Cardinal Borromeo to write a mass that will convince the Council of Trent not to ban polyphonic church music. Palestrina, creatively blocked and grieving his dead wife, refuses, until the spirits of nine departed composers appear and angels dictate a mass to him in a vision. His Missa Papae Marcelli saves sacred music, but Palestrina remains a lonely, contemplative figure, detached from worldly glory.