Joe Sinnott-Thirteen/WNET New York

“SOUTH PACIFIC” IN CONCERT FROM CARNEGIE HALL premiered on April 26, 2006 on PBS (check local listings).

Based on James Michener’s Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of short stories TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s own Pulitzer Prize-winning blockbuster was a landmark of post-World War II Broadway, a provocative romantic drama that beguiled audiences with a hit parade of instant standards. Last June, “South Pacific” reached new heights when, for one enchanted evening, Carnegie Hall presented a magnificent concert production with a dream cast headed by Reba McEntire, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Jason Danieley, Lillias White, and Alec Baldwin. Directed for the concert stage by Walter Bobbie, with musical director Paul Gemignani conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the performance was acclaimed by THE NEW YORK TIMES as “a state of nearly unconditional rapture,” praising the production for locating “the show’s real staying power in its operatic respect for love as a force that hurts, teases, destroys and ennobles.”

“South Pacific” was among Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most successful and critically acclaimed shows, winning nine Tony Awards®, including Best Musical, in 1950. Although its first Broadway revival will not occur until the 2007-08 season (when it is presented by Lincoln Center Theater), “South Pacific” has lived on in thousands of productions, both professional and amateur, over the years, as well as in two movie versions.

Learn why “South Pacific” had to be a hit for the duo and the difficulties they encountered in presenting the controversial theme at the heart of the musical in the essay by contributor Thomas Hischak. See all the numbers from the musical in the song list, which includes links to video excerpts from the concert performance. Find photos from the original production in the Multimedia Presentation, and read an interview with musical theater star Brian Stokes Mitchell.

Special funding for the program was provided by The Rodgers Family Foundation and The LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust.

Related Web Sites

• Carnegie Hall
• The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization
  
• Reba McEntire
• Alec Baldwin
• Lillias White
• Jason Danieley

From London’s beautifully refurbished Covent Garden Opera House comes this elegant new production with one of Tchaikovsky’s most enduring scores for the ballet. Generations of audiences have enjoyed this perennial Christmas favorite, a charming tale of holiday adventure that follows a little girl’s journey through a fantasy world of fairies, princes, toy soldiers, and an army of mice. Revised by Sir Peter Wright with sets designed by Julia Trevelyan Oman, the new Royal Ballet production features an acclaimed cast, including Ivan Putrov as the Nutcracker, Alina Cojocaru as Clara, Miyako Yoshida as the Sugar Plum Fairy, and Sir Anthony Dowell as the toy- and clockmaker Herr Drosselmeyer. Conductor Evgenii Svetlanov leads the Royal Opera Orchestra through some of Tchaikovsky’s most beloved music, including “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” and “Waltz of the Snowflakes.”

The two-act ballet had its premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on December 17, 1892. It was based on Alexander Dumas père’s THE NUTCRACKER OF NUREMBERG, which was an adaptation of an earlier story by E.T.A. Hoffmann called THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING. Read a synopsis of “The Nutcracker” to become more familiar with the holiday classic. You can also print a set and a variety of character cutouts from “The Nutcracker,” which can then be colored and assembled in order to stage your own version of the ballet.

Related Web Sites

• The Royal Ballet

• The Nutcracker Ballet

• NPR: The Enduring Spirit of the Nutcracker

• Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky

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The My Christmas concert is the ultimate holiday musical experience from Andrea Bocelli, showcasing the tenor in performances of traditional carols and other favorites in English, with a few additional selections in Italian and German. Regarding Christmas music, the star remarks, “I have long dreamed of recording a holiday album that captures the beautiful traditions of the holiday season. Every year, these songs have brought incredible joy to me and my family, and it is my hope to give back that same joy by making this album.” Of her experience singing Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas” with Bocelli during the taping, country music star Reba McEntire told the Toronto Sun, “I sat there in awe. I just loved it. (His voice) is rich like frosting on a cake – decadent. It’s so full. I stood there right beside him and just watched him.”

An iconic figure in music who has sold more than 60 million albums to date, Bocelli continues to defy categorization, age barriers and labels of any kind. In concert or on the opera stage, he has sung with everyone from Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo to Bono and Celine Dion. In addition to his solo Great Performances concert programs, Bocelli’s many memorable television appearances include the Oscar and Grammy Awards telecasts, mentoring contestants on American Idol and performances at the Official Ceremonies of the Olympic Games, all of which have propelled Andrea Bocelli into becoming a global household name in contemporary popular music.

Great Performances is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers and PBS.

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Airing in high definition and 5.1 surround sound, the evening, recorded September 24, marked the opening salvo of the four-month Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds, a New York City-wide salute to the composer, conductor and educator presented by Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic celebrating the 90th anniversary of his birth and 50th anniversary of his appointment as New York Philharmonic Music Director.

“Jazzy energy and the Jets,” hailed The New York Times, while The Newark Star-Ledger called the program “a dizzying sampler of the composer’s wit and poetry.”

Featuring selections ranging from the 1944 ballet Fancy Free through West Side Story (1957) to his final opera A Quiet Place (1983), the telecast offers a virtual sound portrait of Leonard Bernstein’s life. “His music is intensely biographical,” says Tilson Thomas, a close friend and colleague of Bernstein, who first met the maestro in 1968 and, in 1971, succeeded him as conductor of the New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts on national TV. “The pieces do reflect his early, middle and late years,” Tilson Thomas says, “optimistic, reflective and then the concern that somehow all the disparate themes will come out in the end, that there will be some kind of resolution and peace.”

Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, certainly Bernstein’s most famous work, opens the program, followed by selections from A Quiet Place, with Hampson and Upshaw as an estranged father and daughter. On the lighter side, Ebersole scores with the randy “I Can Cook Too” from On the Town, then joins Upshaw, Hampson and Ma for “Ya Got Me” from the same show.

Other highlights: Meditation No. 1 from Mass (Ma), “What a Movie!” from Trouble in Tahiti (Upshaw), “To What You Said” from Songfest (Hampson and Ma), and “Gee, Officer Krupke” from West Side Story (students of The Juilliard School). The orchestra itself gets another chance to shine with the slinky, hip-swaying Danzon from Fancy Free.

Music Director of the New York Philharmonic from 1958 to 1969 and Laureate Conductor from 1969 to 1990, Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) brought his own particular New World sensibility to classical music. Equally at home in a Broadway theater or concert hall, the beloved ‘Lenny’ – who performed at Carnegie Hall more than 400 times during his career – had an enthusiasm for an understanding of music far beyond his classical realm, extending into jazz, world music, American song, and 1960s pop and rock.

A popular presence on television – his Young People’s Concerts introduced an entire generation to classical music – he was a particular favorite of GREAT PERFORMANCES audiences. Beginning with the series’ first full season in 1973-74, when Mass became GP’s first music program, through 1988’s Bernstein at 70 from Tanglewood, he was never far from a series camera. More recently, his Candide in Concert was a highlight of the 2004-5 season.

Tilson Thomas, who also hosts Carnegie Hall Opening Night 2008: A Celebration of Leonard Bernstein, assumed his post as the 11th Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) in 1995, consolidating a strong relationship with the orchestra that began some two decades earlier. In 1974, at age 29, he made his debut with the group leading Mahler’s Symphony No. 9. His tenure has been praised for innovative programming and for bringing the works of American composers to the fore, as well as attracting new audiences to Davies Symphony Hall. He last appeared on GREAT PERFORMANCES in 2004’s two-part examination and performance (with the SFS) of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, part of the orchestra’s groundbreaking PBS television series and multimedia project Keeping Score.

Now in its 97th season, the esteemed San Francisco Symphony includes among its music directors such distinguished conductors as Pierre Monteux, Seiji Ozawa, Edo de Waart, and Herbert Blomstedt.

Carnegie Hall Opening Night 2008: A Celebration of Leonard Bernstein inaugurates the hall’s 118th season and is a production of Carnegie Hall and Thirteen/WNET New York in association with San Francisco Symphony. Directed by Gary Halvorson, it is produced by John Walker and Mitch Owgang, with David Horn as Executive Producer.

GREAT PERFORMANCES is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, Vivian Milstein, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers, and PBS. Major funding for this telecast was provided by S. Donald Sussman, with additional special funding by The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund and the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust.

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Great Performances is a production of THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG – one of America’s most prolific and respected public media providers.

“A fantastic night” proclaimed musiccomh.com, while thestage.co asked “Is there an original pop musical stuffed with better melodies?” neatly echoing Time’s initial 1988 assessment: “One of the best rock scores ever produced.” Adding to the excitement is the 50-piece City of London Philharmonic, led by David Firman, and the 100-voice West End Chorus.

ABBA composers Andersson and Ulvaeus created their first musical theater work more than a decade before striking pay dirt with their phenomenon, Mamma Mia. It was the inspired idea of lyricist/librettist Rice to match the pair with his cold war tale: the East/West Chess Championship and the romantic triangle that develops between the Russian and American competitors and the beautiful woman who manages one and falls in love with the other. Chart topper Groban (Awake, Closer, Noel) sings the Russian player, Anatoly; Rent Tony and Drama Desk Award-nominee Pascal is the American Freddie, and Tony-winner Menzel (Wicked Witch Elphaba) is Florence, the woman between them.

Chess in Concert is a co-production of THIRTEEN, Reprise Records and Peppermint Pictures, in association with Heartaches Ltd. Directed for telecast by David Horn and produced by Austin Shaw, it was recorded at Albert Hall May 12, 2008. Hugh Wooldridge staged the concert adaptation.

Josh Groban includes among his many Great Performances appearances Josh Groban in Concert (2002), Josh Groban at the Greek (2004) and last December’s David Foster & Friends. Adam Pascal was most recently seen in the series’ My Favorite Broadway: The Love Songs (2001). Chess in Concert marks Idina Menzel’s Great Performances debut.

Great Performances is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, Vivian Milstein, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers, and PBS.

Richard Young – Oops Publishing Ltd. 2002

Rock music’s most celebrated musicians gathered at London’s Royal Albert Hall on November 29, 2002 to pay tribute to one of their own, the legendary George Harrison, on the one-year anniversary of his death. On that magical night, Harrison’s closest friends gathered to perform a collection of his music for a live audience. Far more than a concert film, CONCERT FOR GEORGE is a soulful cinematic tribute to a musician whose vision transcended the ordinary and whose talents contributed to a revolution in the music industry. Under the musical direction of Harrison’s longtime friend Eric Clapton, the film captures an emotional gathering of musicians including Jeff Lynne, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Billy Preston, and Ringo Starr. Truly a rare moment in music history, this documentary showcases these legends of music not likely to perform together on the same stage again. CONCERT FOR GEORGE is masterfully directed by famed British director David Leland, whose credits include WISH YOU WERE HERE, HBO’s BAND OF BROTHERS television series, and The Traveling Wilburys video “Handle with Care.”

Singer, songwriter, humanitarian, film producer, avid gardener, George Harrison was a man of many talents and interests. Initially gaining worldwide fame in the 1960s as a member of the Beatles, he went on to an accomplished solo career that spanned three decades. Remembering George, the Multimedia Presentation, provides highlights from Harrison’s life and career and features many tributes to him sent in by fans. In the essay, writer John Uhl takes a look at the continued mania the Beatles generate more than 30 years after their breakup. The catalogue of songs from the concert and links to video excerpts of three numbers are included in the song list.

CONCERT FOR GEORGE premiered on March 3, 2004.

Related Web Sites

• GeorgeHarrison.com
• George Harrison: All Things Must Pass
• CNN.com: In-Depth Special: George Harrison
• Cloud Nine
• The Beatles
• Wikipedia: The Beatles
• One Candle: The Sam Brown Fan Club
• Sony Music: Electric Light Orchestra
• Jools Holland
• Paul McCartney.com
• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
• Billy Preston.net
• Ravi Shankar
• Anoushka Shankar
• RingoStarr.com

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The sold-out engagement, also starring Jennifer Garner and Daniel Sunjata, closed last January, but captured in HDTV by Thirteen/WNET New York’s GREAT PERFORMANCES for PBS. The results can be savored Wednesday, January 7 at 8 p.m. ET (check local listings).

“I’ve wanted to play this part ever since I saw it in high school,” Kline says. “He’s living a life as large as life gets, if not larger. I think it’s very romantic.”

David Leveaux’s stylish production, with sumptuous costumes and sets by Gregory Gale and Tom Pye respectively, remains true to Rostand’s 1897 heartbreaker of a play, bursting with swashbuckling gascons and duplicitous noblemen, fops and ruffians. Its tale of the eponymous philosopher-swordsman (Kline), who pines for his beautiful cousin Roxane (Garner), yet is too ashamed of his large nose to tell her, is an actor’s dream role. He pens poetry and love letters to her in the name of the man she loves, the tongue-tied Christian de Neuvillette (Sunjata). Many years later the truth is revealed – in a sure-fire, four-hankie finale.

The late Anthony Burgess translated and adapted the 2007 production, which was recorded on stage in performance at the Richard Rodgers Theater, January 3 and 4, 2008.

An Ellen M. Krass Production with Thirteen/WNET New York, Cyrano de Bergerac is produced by Ellen M. Krass, with Bonnie Comley, Stewart F. Lane and David Horn as executive producers. Matthew Diamond directs for television, with Gary Bradley as editor.

Oscar- and Tony Award-winner Kline (A Fish Called Wanda, The Pirates of Penzance, On the 20th Century) made his GREAT PERFORMANCES debut in another sword-wielding classical role, Hamlet (1990). He starred in and directed (with Kirk Browning) the telecast

GREAT PERFORMANCES is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, Vivian Milstein, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers, and PBS.

Introduced by Olympic champion figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, a native of the Bay Area and winner of 2008’s Dancing with the Stars, the production encores in high definition and 5.1 surround sound Monday, December 21 at 9 p.m. EST (check local listings) on THIRTEEN’s Great Performances on PBS. San Francisco Ballet Music Director and Principal Conductor Martin West conducts Tchaikovsky’s sprightly score.

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Tchaikovsky’s beguiling score is one of the most popular pieces of music ever written. Think “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” and “Waltz of the Snowflakes.” Inspired by E.T.A. Hoffman’s 1816 story, The Nutcracker and The Mouse King, it was first proposed to Tchaikovsky by legendary choreographer Marius Petipa as a follow-up to Tchaikovsky’s other successful ballets at Russia’s famed Mariinsky Theatre: Swan Lake (1877) and The Sleeping Beauty (1890). The composer began work on it in 1891.

San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker was recorded on stage in performance at the War Memorial Opera House December 19 and 21, 2007. It is a co-production of San Francisco Ballet and KQED Public Television San Francisco, in association with Thirteen for WNET.ORG. Matthew Diamond (Dance in America’s Emmy Award-winning Swan Lake with American Ballet Theatre; Great Performances’ Crazy for You) directs; Judy Flannery (Great Performances’ A Streetcar Named Desire From the San Francisco Opera) produced. Michael Isip is Executive Producer for KQED.

An expanded version of San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker, featuring additional behind-the-scenes interviews with the production’s creators and a background piece on the 1915 World’s Fair, is available on DVD from Opus Arte/Naxos of America.

Great Performances is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, Vivian Milstein, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers and PBS. Major corporate funding for this telecast was provided by First Republic Bank, a division of Merrill Lynch Bank & Trust, Co., FSB. Special funding for the telecast was provided by Jim and Cecilia Herbert & Family. Additional support was provided by The Flora Family Foundation and members of the San Francisco Ballet’s 75th Anniversary Sponsors Council: major sponsors include the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, The Hellman Family and Yurie and Carl Pascarella; with additional sponsors including Stuart Francis and Diana Stark; Stephen and Margaret Gill Family Foundation; Cecilia and Jim Herbert; George Frederick Jewett Foundation, Lucille Jewett, Trustee; Barbara Ravizza and John Osterweis; Kathleen Scutchfield; The Smelick Family; The Swanson Foundation; Ms. Susan A. Van Wagner; E.L. Wiegand Foundation; Diane B. Wilsey; and Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang.

Peter McBride/Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts

Four of the country’s most innovative choreographers combine the grandeur of America’s national parks with the art of the camera in Dance in America: Wolf Trap’s Face of America, an on-location spectacular, Monday, April 21 at 10 p.m. (ET) on Thirteen/WNET New York’s GREAT PERFORMANCES on PBS (check local listings or watch the complete program online). Donald Byrd, Amelia Rudolph, Elizabeth Streb, Doug Varone, and their respective companies are joined by the U.S. Olympic Synchronized Swim Team and Hawai’i’s Halau O Kekuhi in an evening of breathtaking works from Wolf Trap’s acclaimed Face of America artistic adventure series.

The 90-minute compendium showcases aerial dancers off the cliffs of Yosemite National Park, synchronized swimmers underwater at Coral Reef National Monument, and follows some of the country’s most exciting young dancers to Mammoth Cave, Wright Brothers National Memorial, the remains of a sugar cane plantation at Virgin Islands National Park, and the sacred terrain of Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.

Launched in 2000, Wolf Trap’s Face of America commissions dance makers, musicians and performing artists from across the nation to explore the relationship between the natural stage and the creative process; and celebrate fellow National Parks and their cultural heritage using the language of the performing arts. The multi-year initiative of the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts has resulted in a series of world premiere, multimedia programs at Wolf Trap’s Filene Center combining live performance with high-definition films of the performers on site at the parks.

“I think dance works well to tell the story,” says Terrence Jones, president and CEO of the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Virginia. “It’s a medium that has incredible flexibility and with each choreographer a different sense of imagination and spirit.”

Featured are Amelia Rudolph and Project Bandaloop at Yosemite with the music of Native American flutist Robert Mirabal; Donald Byrd and members of his troupe with jazz composer/musician Steve Turre at Virgin Islands National Park; Doug Varone interpreting the songs of country music singer Patti Loveless at Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park; and Elizabeth Streb celebrating the centennial of flight at Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk. Halau O Kekuhi chants and dances at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, while the Olympic Synchronized Swim Team salutes the aquatic life of Coral Reef National Monument.

Dance in America: Wolf Trap’s Face of America is a production of Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts in association with Thirteen/WNET New York. It is produced, directed and edited by Joe Bruncsak and Walter Rissmeyer at Blue Land Media. Vincent Gancie is responsible for the stunning photography.

GREAT PERFORMANCES is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers, and PBS. Special funding for this telecast was provided by the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust.

DANCE IN AMERICA: WOLF TRAP’S FACE OF AMERICA premiered on April 21, 2008.

Related Web Sites

• Wolf Trap
• Project Bandaloop
• United States Synchronized Swimming
• STREB
• Hālau O Kekuhi
• Doug Varone and Dancers

Photo: ORF/Ali Schafler

The intoxicating strains of Franz Lehar and other masters of the operetta and zarzuela stage dominate Domingo, Netrebko & Villazón: Three Stars in Vienna, an icon-studded concert gala from the Imperial Park of Vienna’s Schönbrunn Summer Palace, this December on GREAT PERFORMANCES on PBS (check local listings). Tenors Plácido Domingo and Rolando Villazón join soprano Anna Netrebko in the evening of highlights from such favorite works as The Merry Widow, Land of Smiles and El Gato Montes.

Presented by Thirteen/WNET New York in high definition, the broadcast is led by noted French conductor Bertrand de Billy, directing the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.

From its opening vocal salvo, Domingo’s thrilling account of Lehar’s “Gern hab ich die Frau’n gekuesst” from Paganini, through Netrebko’s swirling Gypsy rendition of “Heia in den Bergen” (from Emmerich Kálmán’s Die Csárdásfürstin) to Villazón’s heart-breaking “Dein ist mein ganzes Herz” (Lehar’s Land of Smiles), the program is a welcome reminder of the glittering lost world of operetta.

The genre (first cousin to the zarzuela of Spain) is a precursor to today’s modern musical and once dominated the world’s stages, thanks to “light music” composers like Lehar, Johann Strauss Jr., and Léo Delibes. Domingo, Netrebko & Villazón: Three Stars in Vienna offers a rare opportunity to re-examine some of their gems. (A complete list of telecast selections accompanies this release.)

Recorded in the Austrian capital June 27, 2008, Domingo, Netrebko & Villazón: Three Stars in Vienna is a co-production of ORF, ZDF and Unitel Classica, in association with Thirteen/WNET New York. Heidelinde Haschek directs, with Heidelinde Rudy and Sandra Marchart as Producers.

GREAT PERFORMANCES is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers, and PBS.