A song for a Spanish toreador from a French opera is a favorite of filmmakers. We sample a few unlikely uses of the martial melody — from a desert island to a food court to Sesame Street.

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Fridays are funnier with a classical cartoon at noon, from Deceptive Cadence.

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In Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, brass snarl and winds shriek like feral beasts in an opium-fueled dream of passion, murder and execution by guillotine.

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In the 19th and 20th centuries, nearly every coal mine in the U.K. had a brass band. They were intended to keep workers out of trouble, and were a matter of civic pride for local communities. Today, some say that without funding, the bands could become a thing of the past.

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Hear one of the most exciting pieces of 21st-century music: a new retelling of Jesus' last days, from the Latin American and Jewish perspectives, courtesy of composer Osvaldo Golijov and his vibrant cast of collaborators. The result is "as if musical history were starting over."

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Music Henry Purcell wrote for the funeral of Queen Mary II more than 400 years ago is still heard today. Composers on both sides of the Atlantic have been drawn to its simple power; the film A Clockwork Orange opens with a synthesizer version. Hear how Mary's mourners may have experienced it.

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Hear a top French chamber orchestra bring passionate life to operatic works by Vivaldi, Handel and the little-heard Nicola Antonio Porpora — a composer who was once Handel's rival.

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We can thank Alfred Hitchcock for giving new life to Charles Gounod's quirky little march about dueling puppets, funeral processions and a few refreshing cocktails.

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Van Cliburn competition winners remember the great pianist, who died last month at age 78. See silver medalist Joyce Yang play for Cliburn — and his unforgettably moving response.

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Forget basketball this month: there's often greater drama (and comedy) at weddings, as Mendelssohn reminds us in this edition of Marches Madness.

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