Intermezzo (Tango) from the opera "Life with an Idiot" Renowned cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich switches instruments in this performance, joining members of the Rotterdam Philharmonic as a pianist. The music is the intermezzo between the first and second scenes of Act I from the 1992 opera "Life with an Idiot" by Russian composer Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998).