Even before the curtain rises, the overture to Le Nozze di Figaro begins, and at once the audience starts to experience a surge of happiness. There are very few pieces of music that so clearly and reliably promise to usher the spirit into a state of happiness; perhaps only the opening Allegro of Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony could be compared with it. Mendelssohn, like Mozart, was one of those composers who came into the world to make it a little more habitable and...

Herculine Barbin, also known as Alexina B., was born in France in 1838. At birth it was decided that she was a female and she was raised as a girl. When reaching puberty, she realized that her body was not developing like those of the rest of the girls. She never menstruated but suffered from severe pain. Alexina B. found a job as a teacher in a girls’ boarding school where she fell in love with Sara, the daughter of the director of the centre. After their first love encounter...