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Private Notes
A year after his death, Great Performances celebrates the life of Luciano Pavarotti. Rarely seen footage, archival performances, and interviews with friends and colleagues recount Pavarotti's life, career and later status as a worldwide superstar.
The 90th anniversary of the birth of composer Leonard Bernstein is celebrated. Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the San Francisco Symphony.
Prolific composer and record producer David Foster brings together performers that he has worked with in his long career and a few new faces to celebrate an evening of music.
Three opera icons--tenors Plácido Domingo and Rolando Villazón, and soprano Anna Netrebko--perform selections from such favorite works as The Merry Widow, Land of Smiles and El Gato Montes. Recorded June 27, 2008 at the Imperial Park of Vienna's Schönbrunn Summer Palace.
San Francisco Ballet makes the beloved Nutcracker its own, resetting it during the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exhibition and introducing Dance in America viewers to the dazzling Maria Kochetkova and Davit Karapetyan. Recorded in December 2007 by KQED Public Television to help commemorate the company’s 75th anniversary, the work is choreographed by Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson and features sets and costumes by, respectively, Michael Yeargan and Martin Pakledinaz, both repeat Tony Award-winning designers. Introduced by Olympic champion figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, a native of the Bay Area.
John Adams' 1991 opera about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the inventor of the atomic bomb.
Julie Andrews hosts as the Vienna Philharmonic performs Strauss favorites and a tribute to Franz Joseph Haydn, as 2009 is the 200th anniversary of his death. Daniel Barenboim conducts.
Actor Kevin Kline brings Cyrano de Bergerac to life in this Broadway production recorded on stage in performance at the Richard Rodgers Theater, January 3 and 4, 2008. Edmond Rostand's play tells of a swashbuckling poet who pines for the beautiful Roxane, but is too ashamed of his large nose to declare his love.
This 1905 opera by German composer, Richard Straus, is based on Oscar Wilde's play telling of the Biblical Salome, who danced for Herod in exchange for the head of John the Baptist. Modern dress is used for this production. Sung in German with English subtitles.
Hector Berlioz's opera about making a deal with the Devil gets an updated look thanks to technology in media. Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and Italian tenor Marcello Giordani star as young lovers faced with the persuasive and wicked Méphistophélès, played by Canadian bass-baritone John Relyea. The production is sung in French, with English subtitles.
The opening gala of the Metropolitan Opera's 2008-2009 season features soprano Renee Fleming in three of her favorite roles. Taped in September, 2008, at the opening of the Met's 125th season. Presented are fully staged acts of the following operas: Act II of Verdi's La Traviata (with Ramon Vargas and Thomas Hampson; Conductor, James Levine) Act III of Massenet's Manon (with Ramon Vargas and Dwayne Croft; Conductor, Marco Armiliato) Final scene of Strauss' Capriccio (with Michael Devlin; Conductor, Patrick Summers)
An aging King Lear decides to abdicate and divide his kingdom among his three daughters. He seeks a kind of oath of love before doing so, with which Goneril and Regan falsely comply. Feeling that any statement of “most love” would be false, Cordelia refuses, provoking Lear to disown her and then banish his faithful steward Kent who comes to her defense. She leaves to marry the king of France. However, Lear still wants the trappings of kingship, so proposes to move between the now-divided kingdoms of his two remaining daughters while demanding royal privileges, represented by a companion train of one hundred knights. Kent reappears in disguise and takes up service to Lear. However, Lear gets no further than two weeks at Goneril’s castle. She tires of his knights’ unruly behavior, and threatens to take away half of them. In a rage Lear moves to Regan’s, but she has removed herself to Gloucester’s house, which is too small for one hundred knights. There she and Goneril gradually reduce his status until he is little more than an unwanted house guest, stirring him to increasingly bitter tirades against their ingratitude. He finally banishes himself, winding up on the heath in a brutal storm.
Meanwhile, Edmund, the bastard son of Gloucester, has convinced his father through the ruse of a forged letter and a staged wound from a fight that his legitimate son, Edgar, intends to assassinate him. Edmund also convinces Edgar that he is in danger (of course he is). Edgar flees and disguises himself as a beggar and madman to avoid detection. In this state he hides in a hovel on the heath during the storm. Nearby, Lear rages against the gods, nature, and his daughters. As the Fool and Kent try to get him shelter, they discover the “mad” Edgar. The quartet carry on in a madcap kind of way until Lear asks “Is man no more than this?” and has his clothes removed (in some performances). Gloucester finally finds them and leads them to shelter, where Lear cond
Gaetano Donizetti's opera about love and politics, and a woman who is driven to madness. This production is set in the Victorian era. Sung in Italian with English subtitles.
Giacomo Puccini's opera is performed by real-life couple, Angela Gheorghiu and husband Roberto Alagna. Gheorghiu plays an unhappy kept woman who has a fling with an idealistic young man (Alagna) who makes her question her decisions.
Orfeo ed Euridice (English translation: Orpheus and Eurydice) is the most famous opera by comoser Christoph Willibald von Gluck. It is the mythical tale of Orfeo, who enters Hades to retrieve his dead wife. This production is sung in Italian with English subtitles.
A behind the scenes look at the Broadway musical In the Heights, a "modern-day West Side Story" set in a latin neighborhood. Cameras follow the relatively unknown cast, led by composer-lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda, from a small off-Broadway theater to the show's debut at the Richard Rodgers theater on Broadway.
Long-time friends Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood perform songs from their short colaboration in the group Blind Faith as well as songs from Cream (Clapton's group), Traffic (Winwood's group), their solo efforts and other songs. Recorded live at Madison Square Garden in February 2008.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Motown Records, Stevie Wonder performs his first concert recorded for television. Taped in October 2008 at London's 02 Arena, the concert features Wonder's hits from the last 40 years, when he was billed as "Little Stevie Wonder."
The successful format of combining well-known singers with a light staging and full orchestra and chorus works well here for a re-staging of Chess the Musical - The story involves a romantic triangle between two top players, an American and a Russian, in a world chess championship, and a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other; all in the context of a Cold War struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, during which both countries wanted to win international chess tournaments for propaganda purposes. Although the protagonists were not intended to represent any specific individuals, the character of the American was loosely based on chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer, while elements of the story may have been inspired by the chess careers of Russian grandmasters Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov. (Wikipedia)
Vincenzo Bellinis opera about a sleepwalking woman forced to prove her undying love for her betrothed. "La Sonnambula" is Latin for "The Somnambulist." The original opera is set in the Swiss Alps. This production depicts modern-day actors staging a production of La Sonnambula in a rehearsal hall. Performed in Italian with English subtitles.
Giacomo Puccini's beloved opera tells the tale of a Japanese geisha betrayed by her American lover. This production was created by Academy Award-winning director Anthony Minghella, who passed away suddenly in March 2008. Sung in Italian with English subtitles, this performance was taped on March 7, 2009.
Renowned folk artist Pete Seeger turned 90 in May of 2009. To celebrate, more than 40 artists whose music was influenced by Seeger gathered at New York's Madison Square Garden to perform songs inspired by Seegers music and political activism. Taped live on May 3, 2009.
Gioachino Rossini's operatic version of the classic tale of Cinderella. Maestro Maurizio Benini conducts the Metropolitan Orchestra. Sung in Italian with English subtitles.
Many African Americans who found themselves in Europe at the end of WWI stayed there because there was less racism than in the United States. Over the next twenty years, until the violence of WWII, they created an expatriate community of musicians, entertainers and entrepreneurs, in Paris' Montmartre neighborhood. This documentary tells the story of this neglected portion of African American cultural history. Inspired by the book Harlem in Montmartre: a Paris Jazz Story by William A. Shack. Narrated by S. Epatha Merkerson.
Documentation of the life and career of Herbert von Karajan, one of the most respected conductors of the 20th centry. Karajan was director of the Berlin Philharmonic for 35 years, and conducted orchestras across Europe. Many performances are featured, including rehearsals, concerts and rare archived footage.
The Vienna Philharmonic performs an outdoor concert in the historic Baroque Park overlooking the Vienna's Schönbrunn Palace. Daniel Barenboim is the orchestra's conductor.
The Police final tour, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
