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As his health declined in the 1930s, the great composer Maurice Ravel was less and less able to write the music which, reflecting his genius, his sense of orchestration, his fantasies, his tenderness and his humor, was the source of such masterpieces as The Piano Concerto in G major, The Concerto in D for the left hand, The Valse, L'Enfant et les sortilèges and the Toccata from The Tombeau de Couperin. In the end, it was illness that won the day. Ravel died of a brain tumor on December 28, 1967. He was 62 years old.

In the winter of 1944 in Rome, a young man pursued by a Fascist patrol takes refuge in the Plaza Hotel. The concierge takes him into the suite occupied by Pietro Mascagni, the famous composer. Mascagni, in his eighties, is surrounded by three friends. The young man begs Mascagni to protect him. The composer then recalls a period in his youth: almost unknown and at the end of his tether, a friend had brought him the piano that would enable him to hear the music for "Cavalleria Rusticana", an opera he had composed in his head. Shortly afterwards, one of the militiamen searching the hotel enters the maestro's place. He discovers him absorbed in listening to the young man singing "Cavalleria Rusticana", and doesn't recognize the man he's looking for.