BBC production of 'Sergei Prokofiev (I)''s opera "War and Peace" performed by the Kirov Opera under the baton of Valery Gergiev in St. Petersburg, Russia. The love story of young Countess Natasha Rostova and Count Pierre Bezukhov, is intertwined with the "Great Patriotic War" of 1812 against the invading Napoleon's Armies. People of Russia from all classes of society stand up united against the enemy. Both sides suffer tremendous losses during the war, and Russian society is left irrevocably changed.—Steve Shelokhonov