Originating at England’s innovative Chichester Festival Theatre, director Goold’s exciting interpretation relocates the bloody action to a nameless 20th century nether world. Tony-nominated Kate Fleetwood also returns to reprise her stage role performance as Lady Macbeth.

Shot in High Definition on UK locations, Goold will maintain the atmosphere and tone of the critically acclaimed stage production, heightening the Shakespearean classic with an edgy style reminiscent of Illuminations’ recent film adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet, which will be broadcast on PBS in April 2010 by THIRTEEN’s Great Performances.

For Great Performances, Bill O’Donnell is series producer; David Horn is executive producer. For Illuminations, John Wyver and Sebastian Grant are producers.

I’ve been obsessively listening to “The Hounds of Winter,” one of the tracks on “If on a Winter’s Night,” Sting’s latest CD, a winter-themed album. The song isn’t new—it first came out more than a decade ago on Sting’s Mercury Falling—but it’s a superb new arrangement that pulls several excellent instrumentalists into the mix, including people like classical cellist Vincent Ségal and jazz/world percussionist Cyro Baptista. On that track there’s also Kathryn Tickell, a traditional violinist from Sting’s hometown of Newcastle, England, whose wonderfully haunting repeating line of fourths and octaves against Julian Sutton’s moaning Melodeon sounds like the “lonesome, lonesome sound” of the hounds of the song’s lyrics. The album has a whole range of pieces that relate somehow to winter, including an arrangement of Schubert’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man” (from Winterreise), English carols like “Balulalow,” and an arrangement of a Bach melody from one of the cello suites, set to new words by Sting.

Serial obsessions are a hallmark of Sting’s career. Classical musicians and audiences took notice when Songs from the Labyrinth came out in 2006—here, Sting sang Dowland songs with lutenist Edim Karamazov. (Sting also took up the lute-playing for the project.) He’s nothing if not prolific, and lately he’s dipped into several projects, the first being a film whose subject is Robert and Clara Schumann, and the second being the “Winter’s Night” album. Just before his December appearances in New York in connection with both those projects, and the premiere of Great Performances’ Sting: A Winter’s Night broadcast premiere on Thanksgiving evening, he spoke to SundayArts blogger Jennifer Melick.

I’m curious to know about some of the musical choices you have made—there was Dowland several years back, who’s sometimes referred to as the melancholy madrigalist, and then Robert Schumann, who struggled with his own difficulties, his mental illness. And now, with “If on a Winter’s Night” you’ve got this new album with a winter theme—the coldest, darkest season. Does melancholy in general interest you? How did you put together this latest album?

Sting: Well, I did a lot of research with my producer, Bob Sadin, into the music of winter. And I looked at songs from many centuries, of many genres—classical songs and folksongs and sacred music, and some modern song. I suppose I was looking for my resonance, my ambivalence of feelings about the season: its cold, its discomfort, its bleak, profound beauty. But also its magic. So I was looking for magical stories. So I think it is the season of the imagination. And it’s a very very rich season.

“If on a Winter’s Night” is definitely not a religious or “Christmas” album, but there are several songs on it— “Balulalow” and “Lo, How a Rose” for instance—that are traditionally sung at Christmastime. How important is keeping those sorts of traditions alive? (Below you can listen to a 30 second sample of “The Hounds of Winter.”

Sting: I avoided “Frosty the Snowman” and “Jingle Bells” and … things that have become just bromides, or just overused symbols. I was looking for a more spiritual approach to the season, and that perhaps more familiar songs would give us. If “Lo, How a Rose,” maybe a lot of people know “Lo, How a Rose,” but a lot of people don’t. A lot of people hearing this album, have never heard these songs. So from a pop audience’s point of view, these songs are very obscure. The cognoscenti have heard of Peter Warlock but most people have no idea.

Listen to part of “Hounds of Winter”:

While you’re here in New York you’ll be performing in one large venue—the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on December 8 and 9—and one very small one—a private event at the Greene Space on December 3 that will be streamed live (at wnyc.org/thegreenespace and wqxr.org). Is there an intimacy that you try for, regardless of the style of music or how big or small the space is?

Sting: I think variety is important. Not only in terms of music and style of music and interpretation, but also the type of venues you play. For me, success is having the freedom to explore new territory and making that territory, as far as possible, my own.

The “winter” album and the DVD film Twin Spirits both came out this fall. How did you end up doing a project about the music and lives of Robert and Clara Schumann?

Sting: I knew a little about Schumann before I did Twin Spirits, which we started about five years ago. But I knew nothing of Clara Schumann. I knew nothing of her music, which I suppose indicates a sort of misogyny of music—you know, because she’s a woman, you don’t need to listen to her. But what’s interesting about this production is that the music is placed alongside her husband’s and treated equally, and she more than stands up to the comparison. I think her work is fantastic. Given that she was also raising a family and having a concert career at the same time, while Robert was languishing. It’s really her story.

What’s neat about the Twin Spirits film is that you and your wife, Trudie Styler, are both connected with it—she reads Clara letters and you read Robert’s. I guess this is somewhat of a rare opportunity for the two of you to work together.

Sting: Yes, it is. It was originally the Royal Opera House’s idea that we read these letters, and I was a little reticent at first, but they said, oh, just read the letters, and the story will tell itself. And of course it does, so my job in playing Robert was not necessarily to emote or “act” the part, because I think a lot of his struggle was internal. So I really allowed the letters to tell the story and internalized the emotions as much as possible. When we did it live, Alfred Brendel came backstage, and he said, you know, you were the first person who hasn’t overacted this role, and thank you for that. I was very flattered.

The Twin Spirits Schumann film project is really a step in a different direction for you. Do you think about the broader sort of pop audience reacts to some of these sort of extracurricular” or different projects, for lack of a better word?

Sting: It’s important for me not to underestimate the people who listen to my records. I imagine they are as curious, and indeed about the world, as I am. And basically I am there to express my enthusiasm for where my curiosity leads me. I am led by curiosity more than anything else, more than even commercial concerns, I am led by curiosity. My curiosity has coincided largely with popular taste for many years, so I have to trust my instincts.

You perform in Twin Spirits with actor Derek Jacobi, baritone Simon Keenlyside, violinist Sergej Krylov, pianist Iain Burnside, soprano Rebecca Evans, cellist Natalie Clein, and pianist Natasha Paremski Watching your conversations on the Twin Spirits supplementary DVD with them and with the director, John Caird, I was struck by how much you seem ask questions, and appear to be in a listening and learning type of mode.

Sting: I am the eternal student—from Chekhov.

When you’re in New York, what do you like to do for culture?

Sting: I go to the theater, to see a show, to a concert, to restaurants and to the cinema. The last show I saw was South Pacific. Which I adored. I was very shocked by the production, how the racism had been excised from the movie. And I was very shocked to see that it was back. It’s quite a piece of theater, to realize that this girl who you’ve been sort of rooting for suddenly reveals herself, it’s quite shocking. A much heavier piece than the movie.

Photo by Clive Barda/ DG courtesy of Deutsche Grammophone.

Watch a preview of the concert:

“Sting: A Winter’s Night…” captures the artist in the evocative setting of one of England’s most famous cathedrals. Standing on a peninsula overlooking the River Wear in County Durham, the 1,000 year-old UNESCO world heritage building is an iconic landmark of Northern England. Inside, the architecture and atmosphere are equally as inspiring, and it is in this setting that Sting is joined by guest musicians, including local Newcastle artists Kathryn Tickell (Northumbrian pipes and fiddle), Peter Tickell (fiddle) and Julian Sutton (Melodeon). Esteemed performers from around the world also include Dominic Miller (guitar), Vincent Ségal (cello), Scottish harpist Mary MacMaster, Ira Coleman (bass), Chris Gecker (trumpet), David Mansfield (violin and mandolin), Cyro Baptista, Bashiri Johnson and Rhani Krija (percussion), and vocalists Laila Biali, Lisa Fischer, Jo Lawry and Steven Santoro. Producer Robert Sadin conducts an ensemble of 35 musicians, which includes additional string and brass sections.

Featuring traditional music of the British Isles as its starting point, Sting and guest musicians interpret stirring, folk-based melodies including “The Snow it Melts the Soonest” (traditional Newcastle ballad), “Soul Cake” (traditional English “begging” song), “Christmas at Sea” (traditional Scottish song), “Gabriel’s Message” (14th century carol), “Balulalow” (lullaby by Peter Warlock) and “Now Winter Comes Slowly” (Henry Purcell). Two of Sting’s own compositions are also featured: “Lullaby for an Anxious Child” and “The Hounds of Winter,” which originally appeared on his previous release Mercury Falling. “Winter is a season I’ve always had an affinity for,” says Sting. “It’s certainly rich in terms of inspiration and materials.”

Born a milkman’s son in Newcastle, England, Sting met Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers, who formed The Police in 1977. The band quickly became a success in both the U.S. and the UK, scoring several No. 1 hits including Roxanne, Every Breath you Take, King of Pain and Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic. The Police earned five Grammy Awards and two Brits, and in 2003, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. With the release of Dream of the Blue Turtles in 1985, followed by Bring on the Night, Nothing Like the Sun, The Soul Cages, Ten Summoner’s Tales, Mercury Falling, Brand New Day, All This Time, Sacred Love and Songs from the Labyrinth, Sting has evolved into one of the world’s most distinctive and highly-respected solo performers, collecting an additional 11 Grammy Awards, two Brits, a Golden Globe, an Emmy, three Oscar nominations, Billboard Magazine’s Century Award and MusiCares Person of the Year for 2004.

A production of Graying & Balding, Inc., in association with Universal Music Classical Management & Productions (UMCMP) and THIRTEEN for WNET.ORG, the production is directed by the Emmy Award-winning team Jim Gable and Ann Kim. A DVD of the program will be released November 24 on Deutsche Grammophon, featuring additional performances and behind-the-scenes footage documenting the concert’s genesis.

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.

Photograph for video thumbnail by Tony Molina.

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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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The Los Angeles Philharmonic is widely regarded as one of the most contemporary and innovative orchestras in America. Dudamel made his U.S. conducting debut with the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl in September 2005. In April 2007, during a guest conducting engagement with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Dudamel was named the LA Phil’s next Music Director as of the 2009-2010 season, succeeding Esa-Pekka Salonen. “For me, this is really so exciting to be starting my first season as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic,” says Dudamel. “First, this is a beautiful challenge and second, it’s a wonderful opportunity to make great music with my new LA Phil family. The most important thing is to enjoy our time together.”

On the program for his inaugural concert are Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major (“Titan”) and the world premiere of that latest work by Pulitzer Prize-winning music composer John Adams, City Noir. “As the title suggests, ‘City Noir’ is a symphony inspired by the peculiar ambience and mood of Los Angeles ‘noir’ films, especially those produced in the late forties and early fifties,” reveals Adams, newly appointed LA Phil Creative Chair. “My music is an homage not necessarily to the film music of that period but rather to the overall aesthetic of the era.”

Gustavo Dudamel is the product of the National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Venezuela, or more popularly known as El Sistema (the System), created in 1975 by José Antonio Abreu, a Venezuelan conductor, petroleum economics professor and former congressional deputy. Targeting mostly children living in slums, the System gives a musical instrument and instruction to many underprivileged and at-risk Venezuelan youth as an alternative to gang life and crime. “Music changed my life,” Dudamel told the British Herald newspaper. “I can look back now and see that many of the boys from my class went on to become involved in drugs and crime. Those who played music did not.”

Before he even begins his directorship at the LA Phil, Dudamel has been instrumental in creating the American version of El Sistema, YOLA or Youth Orchestra Los Angeles. The program, modeled after the Venezuelan prototype, began in 2007 with youth between the ages of seven and 16 from a disadvantaged district in south central Los Angeles, but its ultimate goal is to provide a musical instrument and a place in a youth orchestra for every Los Angeles county young person who wants one.

News of Gustavo Dudamel’s talent first spread worldwide after his triumph at the inaugural Bamberger Symphoniker Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in May 2004. Just three years later, Dudamel was awarded the Premio de la Latindad, an honor given for outstanding contributions to Latin cultural life. In 2008, the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra was granted Spain’s prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts, given annually by the Prince of Asturias Foundation in Spain. Dudamel was awarded the 2007 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for Young Artists and, most recently, along with his mentor Dr. Abreu, the 2008 “Q Prize” from Harvard University for extraordinary service to children.

The national PBS telecast of Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic: The Inaugural Concert is being produced by Bernhard Fleischer Moving Images, THIRTEEN for WNET.ORG, ZDF-ARTE, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Directed for television by Brian Large, the concert will be telecast in South America and Asia as well.

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 is also provided by The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, with additional funding from the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust.

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A coveted ticket, the popular annual concert is set among the enchanting surroundings of the Schönbrunn Palace grounds, with the musical repertory selected on the theme “Night.” Concert highlights include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “A Little Night Music,” Johann Strauss’ “A Thousand and One Nights” Waltz and Modest Mussorgsky’s “A Night on Bald Mountain.” In addition to conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, Barenboim–equally known for his masterful skills as a piano soloist–took center stage to perform Spanish composer Manuel De Falla’s “Nights in the Gardens of Spain” to thunderous applause. The 90-minute television concert captures the glorious Baroque Park in all its atmospheric moods, from early morning dewdrops to mid-day sunshine to a foggy, mysterious nightfall. “There is no one quite like Daniel Barenboim today in the music world,” raves the New York Times.

Barenboim’s current appointments include serving as the general music director of the Berlin State Opera and its orchestra, as well as the Berlin Staatskapelle. He is also principal guest conductor of the Teatro Alla Scala in Milan. Formerly music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris, Barenboim has been a regular guest of the Vienna Philharmonic since his debut with the orchestra in 1989. Most recently on PBS, viewers will recall Barenboim as guest conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Day concert, which aired on Great Performances on January 1, 2009.

For more than 160 years since 1842, there is perhaps no other musical ensemble more closely associated with the history and tradition of European classical music than the Vienna Philharmonic. Richard Wagner described the orchestra as being one of the most outstanding in the world, and Richard Strauss summed it all up by saying, “All praise for the Vienna Philharmonic reveals itself as an understatement.”

Great Performances is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, Vivian Milstein, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers and PBS. Exclusive corporate funding for this telecast is provided by Rolex. Additional support is provided by The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund and Vera von Kuffner Eberstadt. For Great Performances, John Walker is producer, Bill O’Donnell is series producer and David Horn is executive producer.

Watch a preview of Karajan, or Beauty as I See It:

Featuring extensive performance sequences from rehearsals and concerts, as well as rare archival material, this performance documentary is the first film to truly penetrate Karajan’s regal façade. Supplementing the extraordinary performances are candid and revealing comments by some of the era’s leading artists who accompanied him on his path to legendary status.

Directed by Robert Dornhelm (director of the acclaimed 2007 mini-series adaptation of War and Peace, as well as GP’s upcoming big-screen adaptation of La Boheme starring Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón), the film features forthright commentary by such Karajan friends and colleagues as Evgeny Kissin, Mariss Jansons, Christa Ludwig, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle, Elisabeth Scharzkopf, Sir George Solti and many others, along with personal insights from Karajan’s wife and daughters, as well as the maestro himself. “I don’t just want it to sound beautiful,” said Karajan, “I want it to look beautiful as well—for music is an embodiment of beauty.” The film’s final effect is a multi-faceted portrait that sheds new light on the full spectrum of a profoundly mesmerizing and contradictory personality.

Karajan, or Beauty as I See It is a production of Unitel and MR Film in co-production with ORF, ZDF, SF, SMG and Classica, with support from Fernsehfonds Austria. Great Performances is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, Vivian Milstein, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers, and PBS. Major funding is also provided by The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund and the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust. For Great Performances, John Walker is producer and Bill O’Donnell is series producer; David Horn is executive producer.

Harlem in Montmartre airs as part of PBS’ Great Performances series on THIRTEEN Wednesday, August 26th at 8 p.m. EST (check local listings). The documentary is a co-production of THIRTEEN for WNET.ORG, Vanguard Documentaries, Inc., Ideale Audience SAS, ARTE France and Independent Television Service (ITVS).

Watch a preview of Harlem in Montmartre:

Inspired by the book Harlem in Montmartre: a Paris Jazz Story (University of California Press) by historian William A. Shack and utilizing rare archival material from both France and America, this remarkable performance- driven documentary features the stories and music of such key figures as James Reese Europe, Josephine Baker, Sidney Bechet, Bricktop, Eugene Bullard, Django Reinhardt and more. “The film explores a fascinating, yet often neglected, era in African-American cultural history” says producer Margaret Smilow. “It is a colorful, musical, poignant look at the contributions of a select group of black Americans, without whom the collective voice of jazz music around the world would sound entirely different.” Vanguard Documentaries Executive Producer Charles Hobson reveals, “The French were the first people in the world to respect jazz as serious art form, and it all began in Paris with the arrival of the Harlem Hellfighters, a military band.” Directed by Dante J. James, with performance sequences directed by Olivier Simmonet, and written by James and Simmonet with Allan Miller, the production was co-produced by Smilow with Hobson and Helene Le Coeur; S. Epatha Merkerson narrates.

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. Harlem in Montmartre has been made possible, in part, by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Because democracy demands wisdom. Major funding was also provided by the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, Hugh M. Hefner, Rolf and Elizabeth Rosenthal, the Vital Projects Fund, the Grand Marnier Foundation, The Paula Vial Fund, the Price Family Foundation and Ann Phillips.

Watch a preview below:

Mezzo soprano Elīna Garaňca, who played Rosina in another one of Rossini’s operas, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, now claims the role of the title heroine in La Cenerentola; her Prince Charming is played by Lawrence Brownlee. “It’s actually a coincidence that I’m returning in another of Rossini’s works,” admits Garaňca. Of the opera’s most memorable coloratura showpiece, “Nacqui alľ affanno,” Garaňca says “for me it’s the Olympics – adrenaline at its highest. To get through it, I must switch on all the buttons in the computer in my head and body.”

Italian opera in the early 19th century focused heavily on the range, inflection, and tone of the human voice; this style became known as “bel canto,” or “beautiful singing.” While many opera singers tried to wow audiences by improvising with this technique and adding trills and lilts to their singing, Rossini’s operas, especially La Cenerentola, had bel canto already built right into the scores.

Great Performances at the Met: La Cenerentola is the tenth of 11 productions airing this season on the series. The performance is sung in Italian with English surtitles. Maestro Maurizio Benini conducts, as veteran baritone Alessandro Corbelli demonstrates his impeccable comic timing to match the gravitas of Met favorite John Relyea; the librettist is Jacopo Ferretti.

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. Corporate support for Great Performances at the Met is provided by Toll Brothers.

Briccetti and Victoria Warivonchik are Producers. Peter Gelb is Executive Producer. For Great Performances, Bill O’Donnell is Series Producer; David Horn is Executive Producer.