Francis Poulenc

Born into the wealthy pharmaceutical dynasty that founded Rhône-Poulenc, Francis studied piano with Ricardo Viñes, leaping into Parisian fame as a member of 'Les Six' championed by Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie with his jaunty, irreverent Mouvements perpétuels (1918).

Following the tragic death of a close friend in 1936, Poulenc experienced a profound spiritual rediscovery at the pilgrimage shrine of the Black Virgin of Rocamadour, composing Litanies à la Vierge Noire. In 1957, his opera Dialogues des Carmélites, culminating in the terrifying swish of the guillotine blade during the Salve Regina, became a twentieth-century operatic summit.