Great Performances » 2009 » August http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf The best in the performing arts from across America. Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:45:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Karajan, Or Beauty as I See It: Musicians Remember Karajan http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/karajan-or-beauty-as-i-see-it/musicians-remember-karajan/837/ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/karajan-or-beauty-as-i-see-it/musicians-remember-karajan/837/#comments Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:24:13 +0000 colin fitzpatrick http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/?p=837 In this clip violin virtuoso Anne-Sophie Mutter, pianist Evgeny Kissin, and singers Christa Ludwig and Gundula Janowitz remember how Karajan pushed them in their art and to slow down and find expression in the music, even when the tempo he demanded was a technical impossibility for the performers. Also, see interviews with Karajan’s Daughters, Isabel Von Karajan and Arabel von Karajan, about the ways in which Karajan applied his rigorous conducting technique in other parts of his life and archival footage of Karajan conducting his orchestra.

]]> http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/karajan-or-beauty-as-i-see-it/musicians-remember-karajan/837/feed/ 47 Karajan, Or Beauty as I See It: Preview of Karajan, Or Beauty as I See It http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/karajan-or-beauty-as-i-see-it/preview-of-karajan-or-beauty-as-i-see-it/835/ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/karajan-or-beauty-as-i-see-it/preview-of-karajan-or-beauty-as-i-see-it/835/#comments Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:31:31 +0000 colin fitzpatrick http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/?p=835 As music director of the Berlin Philharmonic for 35 years, Herbert von Karajan remains one of the most discussed, analyzed and written-about conductors of all time. He was called the ‘General Music Director of Europe,’ leading orchestras and opera houses in Berlin, London, Vienna, Milan and Paris to become one of the most respected, yet intimidating, conductors of the 20th century. Yet behind his imperious, enigmatic face, who really was Herbert von Karajan? For many, he was the epitome of classical music—for others, the last dictator among orchestral conductors, as well as one of the post-War era’s most commercially successful classical music entrepreneurs. Yet all agree that in everything he did, he was ahead of his time. Twenty years after Karajan’s death, Karajan Or Beauty As I See It airs in HD on PBS’ Great Performances on THIRTEEN Monday, August 31st at 10 p.m. EST (check local listings).

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.

]]> http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/karajan-or-beauty-as-i-see-it/preview-of-karajan-or-beauty-as-i-see-it/835/feed/ 34 Harlem in Montmartre: Historian Tyler Stovall on Montmartre http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/harlem-in-montmartre/historian-tyler-stovall-on-montmartre/829/ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/harlem-in-montmartre/historian-tyler-stovall-on-montmartre/829/#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:10:55 +0000 colin fitzpatrick http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/?p=829 Tyler Stovall explains the African American community centered around Montmartre outside of Paris, a community filled with key players in black literature and music. Next: Watch and listen to Tyler Stovall recall the days of Bricktop’s.

Tyler Stovall: Paris was a tremendous amount of fun in the 1920s. I mean, after all, this is the decade of the Lost Generation, of, you know, mostly white artists and writers who, you know, gave up everything to come to France and live the good life.

And so, African-Americans when they came to Paris – if they met other black Americans – they would be told generally, “Well, the only place where there really is a concentration of our people is in Montmartre. And that is because of the jazz clubs. So if you want to meet other black Americans, wait until the sun goes down and then go to these jazz clubs and stay there basically until the sun comes up.”

Ok, Montmartre was and is to this day a distinctive Parisian community. It was as early as the early 19th century a place where because it lay beyond the city walls, alcohol was cheaper there because it didn’t have to pay the tax to go into Paris itself. So there were lots of speakeasy- lots of speakeasies, and lots of bars and cafes there. So it had- by the time African-Americans came in there- came there in the 1920s it had a tradition of over- almost a century of being a place where one went to enjoy good times.

There were tales of a so-called shoeshine boy, an African-American man who worked with the American Express outside Paris, who whenever he met African-Americans coming through would tell them – “Go up to Montmartre. That’s where our people are.”

Ok, these writers- people- the writers that came from America. Writers like Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay – basically the cream of the crop of the Harlem Renaissance who came during the 1920s were attracted to Paris for several reasons. They were attracted because of its literary prominence, above all. They were attracted by the fact that it was one of the greatest cities in Europe. And increasingly, they were attracted by the fact that so many of their colleagues also seemed to be coming to Paris in the summer.

So, they did represent something different. And yet at the same time, there was a strand of the writing of Harlem Renaissance writers – and you find this especially in Claude McKay – that celebrated a certain kind of primitivism. Claude McKay writes his groundbreaking novel Banjo – actually it’s set in Marseilles in the late 1920s – and it really celebrates the primitive, the idea of the non-intellectual. And it’s full of contradictions, of course, because it’s written by an intellectual. And it includes a self-portrait of Claude McKay as one of the primary characters.

Josephine Baker also falls into the whole primitivist narrative. In fact, there’s an interesting little piece by a woman named Paulette Nardal. Paulette Nardal was one of the famous Nardal sisters who really helped create the Negritude movement and brought together African-American, African and Caribbean writers. And at one point she called- she wrote an essay called Exotic Puppets, which was basically a hatchet job on Josephine Baker. And she talked about this little half case from St. Louis shaking her butt on the Paris stage.

]]> http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/harlem-in-montmartre/historian-tyler-stovall-on-montmartre/829/feed/ 34 Harlem in Montmartre: Historian Tyler Stovall on Bricktop’s http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/harlem-in-montmartre/historian-tyler-stovall-on-bricktops/830/ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/harlem-in-montmartre/historian-tyler-stovall-on-bricktops/830/#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:09:28 +0000 colin fitzpatrick http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/?p=830 Tyler Stovall recalls the days at Bricktop’s, a club at the center of the scene in Montmartre. Next: Watch and listen to Tyler Stovall explain the role of jazz during and after the war and the genesis of bebop.

Tyler Stovall: Whereas Josephine Baker makes her reputation on the main stages in Paris – the Theatre de Champs Elysees, for example – Bricktop remains for this entire period a fixture of the Montmartre clubs. She first establishes one club named Bricktop’s and then she moves to another one, which she also names Bricktop’s. But if you want to go to a club in Montmartre, hers is ultimately the place to go.

Bricktop’s was a place where you could go and experience the confluence of many different worlds. All sitting around drinking champagne and listening to jazz music and eating American style cuisine. It was very expensive. It was not a place for people who were not flush with money or not willing to spend it, but once you got in the door, you could pay the ticket, you were welcome no matter who you were.

By 1931, 1932 however, the scene in the Montmartre jazz club industry was definitely hurting. Times were not as good as they had been. Even Bricktop, who had been tremendously prosperous during the 1920s is now beginning to feel the pressure.

]]> http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/harlem-in-montmartre/historian-tyler-stovall-on-bricktops/830/feed/ 4 Harlem in Montmartre: Historian Tyler Stovall on WWII, Post-War, and Bebop http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/harlem-in-montmartre/historian-tyler-stovall-on-wwii-post-war-and-bebop/831/ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/harlem-in-montmartre/historian-tyler-stovall-on-wwii-post-war-and-bebop/831/#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:08:23 +0000 colin fitzpatrick http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/?p=831 Tyler Stovall describes Arthur Briggs’ role during World War II in the Montmartre jazz scene, the role of jazz during and after the war, and the origins of Bebop.

Tyler Stovall: Arthur Briggs was somebody- he had come to Paris in the mid-‘20s with the first wave of African-American musicians. He had married a Frenchwoman, he had settled down. By 1939, he was French in all but name. He was also one of these musicians, by the way, that had bought a country house for himself. Actually in the same neighborhood as Josephine Baker in the 1930’s. This is the ultimate dream of every Parisian, by the way, to have a country house. And doing this showed just how Parisian he had become.

So, when the Germans arrived, Arthur Briggs simply refused to leave and continued to play until he was arrested by the German army and placed in an internment camp in Saint Denis. Saint Denis is a suburban city just outside Paris itself. And he spent four years there in the camp. He actually organized a jazz orchestra that the German commandant liked. And permitted him to play jazz while he was there.

So I think that listening to jazz was one way in which you could resist Nazi ideology. By the way you had the same phenomenon in Germany itself – the whole phenomenon of the swing kids in the late 1930s. Of young people that also embraced jazz as a way of resisting ideology. Meant that this was not just a French phenomenon, but really a European-wide phenomenon, so that music became a kind of politics of resistance in this period. And I think that continued to inform the popularity of jazz after the liberation in 1944 because it was very much linked to resistance.

And they looked at jazz as a symbol of resistance to totalitarianism, but also to American [unintell]. To the American- to the increasingly Americanization aspect, the impact of American culture in France. Until the early 1960s, for example, Paris was full of American soldiers.

And many Parisians looked at them as an effective new army of occupation in the years after the Second World War. Whereas they could look at jazz as a kind of symbol of another kind of America. Now the irony of this is one of the main ways that many Parisians listened to jazz in the post-World War II era was through Armed Forces Radio. So the American Army, just as it had in the First World War was a major transmitter of jazz culture to France.

Ok, bebop is very interesting in France because it’s something that develops in the United States during the war and because of the German occupation of France, French exposure to it is somewhat delayed. And this is one example where the German occupation created a sort of cut-off between France and trans-Atlantic cultural development. So by the time bebop comes to France in the late 1940s, it’s already very well-developed in New York, Kansas City, Chicago, other places.

France is becoming close to the United States. The world is becoming smaller. It is easier for African-Americans to travel back and forth between Paris and America. Or to travel to Paris for a while then go to a jazz festival in Montreaux or Nice or other places throughout Europe. So you have this whole jazz performance circuit in the 1950s- ‘40s and ‘50s. It really didn’t exist, it was only starting to come into existence in the 1930s.

And creates a whole different image of jazz. So you have this paradox. On the one hand, jazz is seen as a kind of political music, as a kind of rejection and an embrace of Americanism at the same time. On the other hand, jazz is also becoming more respectable in and of itself. You know, leading to the point where you can have now Wall Street editorial- Wall Street Journal editorials about different kinds of jazz and which is the best kind to go to. Something that would have been completely unimaginable in the 1920s.

]]> http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/harlem-in-montmartre/historian-tyler-stovall-on-wwii-post-war-and-bebop/831/feed/ 5 Harlem in Montmartre: Preview of Harlem in Montmartre http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/harlem-in-montmartre/preview-of-harlem-in-montmartre/827/ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/harlem-in-montmartre/preview-of-harlem-in-montmartre/827/#comments Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:39:37 +0000 colin fitzpatrick http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/?p=827 Beloved American jazz singer and bandleader Cab Calloway once said, “You hear about the Duke Ellingtons, the Jimmy Luncefords, the Fletcher Hendersons, but people sometimes forget that jazz was not only built in the minds of the great ones, but on the backs of the ordinary ones.” While far from ordinary, Harlem in Montmartre tells the story of the long-forgotten “extraordinary ones,” who left America to create the jazz age in Paris between the First and Second World Wars. After peace was signed at Versailles, many black Americans remained in Europe rather than return to the brutal segregation and racism of America. Over the next two decades, they formed an expatriate community of musicians, entertainers and entrepreneurs, primarily congregating in Paris’ hilly Montmartre neighborhood. Some achieved enduring fame, while others faded into history.

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.

]]> http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/harlem-in-montmartre/preview-of-harlem-in-montmartre/827/feed/ 108 GP at the Met: La Cenerentola: La Cenerentola Production Credits http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/gp-at-the-met-la-cenerentola/la-cenerentola-production-credits/826/ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/gp-at-the-met-la-cenerentola/la-cenerentola-production-credits/826/#comments Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:48:22 +0000 colin fitzpatrick http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/?p=826 Directed by
GARY HALVORSON

Conductor
MAURIZIO BENINI

Production
CESARE LIEVI

Set and Costume Designer
MAURIZIO BALÒ

Lighting Designer
GIGI SACCOMANDI

Choreographer
DANIELA SCHIAVONE

Stage Director
SHARON THOMAS

Host
THOMAS HAMPSON

Cast in order of vocal appearance

Clorinda
RACHELLE DURKIN

Tisbe
PATRICIA RISLEY

Angelina, known as Cenerentola
ELĪNA GARANČA

Alidoro
JOHN RELYEA

Don Magnifico
ALESSANDRO CORBELLI

Don Ramiro
LAWRENCE BROWNLEE

Dandini
SIMONE ALBERGHINI

Recitative Accompanist
ROBERT MYERS

Chorus Master
DONALD PALUMBO

Musical Preparation
JOAN DORNEMANN
ROBERT MYERS
JANE KLAVITER
J. DAVID JACKSON
CAREN LEVINE
HEMDI KFIR

Assistant Stage Directors
ERIC EINHORN
DANIEL RIGAZZI

Dramaturg
PAUL CREMO

Prompter
JANE KLAVITER

Met Titles
SONYA FRIEDMAN

A METROPOLITAN OPERA HIGH-DEFINITION PRODUCTION

Supervising Producers
MIA BONGIOVANNI
ELENA PARK

Producers
LOUISA BRICCETTI
VICTORIA WARIVONCHIK

Music Producer
JAY DAVID SAKS

Associate Director
CHRISTINE CLARK BRADLEY

Engineer-in-Charge
MARK SCHUBIN

Technical Supervisor
RON WASHBURN

Technical Director
EMMETT LOUGHRAN

Production Mixer
TOM HOLMES

Audio Supervisor
BILL KING

Television Lighting
WAYNE CHOUINARD

Writers
MATT DOBKIN
ELLEN KEEL

Video
BILLY STEINBERG
PAUL RANIERI
MATTY RANDAZZO

Camera
MIGUEL ARMSTRONG
MANNY GUTIERREZ
CHARLIE HUNTLEY
JAY MILLARD
ALAIN ONESTO
DAVID SMITH
RON WASHBURN
MARK WHITMAN

Robotic Camera Technicians
RON TRAVISANO
RICK COMPEAU
MARTIN MARIETTA

Audio Operations Director
JOHN KERSWELL

Audio
CHRIS CALLUS
LOUISE DE LA FUENTE
MATTHEW GALEK
ED HARTLEY
KEN HUNOLD
SEAN McCLINTOCK
JUSTIN MILNER
BLAKE NORTON
AL THEURER

Videotape
ALAN BUCHNER
STEVEN JOYCE

Television Stage Managers
TERENCE BENSON
PHYLLIS DIGILIO

English subtitles adapted by
DAVID REBHUN

Broadcast Graphics
DEBORAH CAVANAUGH

Score Consultant
MICHAEL HEASTON

Make-up for Ms. Garanča and Mr. Brownlee
MATIKI ANOFF

Media Librarian/Archivist
MICHAEL GRIEBEL

Production Associates
ALEXANDRA EASTMAN
YOLANDA S. WILLIAMS

BACKSTAGE AT THE MET

Director
DEBBIE MILLER

Associate Director
KAREN McLAUGHLIN

Production Supervisor
HILARY LEY

Associate Producers
MARISA BIAGGI
MATTHEW PRINCIPE

Field Producer
BARRY GOODMAN

Camera
JOHN KOSMACZEWSKI

Steadicam
JOE DE BONIS

Assistant Camera
KEVIN MURPHY

Head Utility
JAMES WASHBURN

Utility
BOB BENEDETTI
MIKE CUNNINGHAM
ANTHONY DEFONZO
MIKE MORAN

Opening Title Sequence by
SAKAE ISHIKAWA

Production Assistants
ALYSE HORN
ENZO E. MARTINEZ
BRITTANY RETTY
HARRIET SNYDER
DOROTHY YANG

Assistant to Mr. Halvorson
SARA MARTON

Video Editor
GARY BRADLEY

On-line Editor
SCOTT CUMBO

Audio Editor
JOHN BOWEN

Post-Production Audio Mix
KEN HAHN

Pos-Production Manager
MONA OBERMAN

METROPOLITAN OPERA ASSOCIATION

General Manager
PETER GELB

Music Director
JAMES LEVINE

ASSISTANT MANAGERS

Artistic
SARAH BILLINGHURST

Production
LESLEY KOENIG

Editorial & Creative Content
ELENA PARK

Operations
STEWART PEARCE

Development
CORALIE TOEVS

Director of Communications
LEE ABRAHAMIAN

Director of Media & Presentations
MIA BONGIOVANNI

Director of Worldwide HD Distribution
JULIE BORCHARD-YOUNG

Acting Chief Financial Officer
DIANA FORTUNA

Artistic Administrator
JONATHAN FRIEND

General Counsel
SHARON E. GRUBIN

Director of Human Resources & Labor Relations
ANN MARIE HACKETT

Director of Development
ELIZABETH HURLEY

Director of Marketing
KAREN KARP

Director of the Arnold & Marie Schwartz Gallery Met
DODIE KAZANJIAN

House Manager
JAMES NAPLES

Director of National Council Auditions
GAYLETHA NICHOLS

Director of Music Administration
CRAIG RUTENBERG

Technical Director
JOHN SELLARS

Director of Archives
ROBERT TUGGLE

Senior Artistic Advisor
EVA WAGNER-PASQUIER

Executive Director of Lindemann Young Artist Development Program
BRIAN ZEGER

Director of New Business Development
LAURA MITGANG

METROPOLITAN OPERA ORCHESTRA

Orchestra Manager
ROBERT SIRINEK

Concertmaster
LAURA HAMILTON

Librarian
ROBERT SUTHERLAND

METROPOLITAN OPERA CHORUS

Chorus Master
DONALD PALUMBO

Assistant Chorus Master
JOSEPH LAWSON

METROPOLITAN OPERA BALLET

Dance Director
JOSEPH FRITZ

Deputy Dance Director
ANDREW ROBINSON

Stage Managers
THERESA GANLEY
MARGO MAIER-MOUL
SCOTT MOON
JONATHAN WATERFIELD

STAGE OPERATIONS

Master Carpenter
STEPHEN A. DIAZ

Master Electrician
PAUL DONAHUE

Properties Master
JAMES R. BLUMENFELD

Wig and Hair Stylist
TOM WATSON

Make-up Artist
VICTOR CALLEGARI

Wardrobe Supervisor
WILLIAM MALLOY

Costume Shop Head
LESLEY WESTON

Resident Costume Designer
SYLVIA NOLAN

Met Titles Supervisor
MICHAEL PANAYOS

Production Facilities
ALL MOBILE VIDEO INC.
ATLANTIC CINE EQUIPMENT (ACE)
DOLBY LABORATORIES
REMOTE RECORDING

Media Counsel
FRANKLIN, WEINRIB,
RUDELL & VASALLO, P.C.

HD Press Representatives
PETER E. CLARK
CHARLIE SIEDENBURG

The stage production of La Cenerentola was made possible by Alberto Vilar.

La Cenerentola is performed in the critical edition by Alberto Zedda and Philip Gossett, Fondazione Rossini, Pesaro, in cooperation with Casa Ricordi, Milan

For GREAT PERFORMANCES

Series Producer
BILL O’DONNELL

Executive Producer
DAVID HORN

A Metropolitan Opera production in association with PBS and WNET.ORG

Executive Producer
PETER GELB

Copyright © 2009  MET LOGO

]]> http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/gp-at-the-met-la-cenerentola/la-cenerentola-production-credits/826/feed/ 11 GP at the Met: La Cenerentola: Preview of La Cenerentola http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/gp-at-the-met-la-cenerentola/preview-of-la-cenerentola/824/ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/gp-at-the-met-la-cenerentola/preview-of-la-cenerentola/824/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:18:34 +0000 colin fitzpatrick http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/?p=824 Over the centuries, the story of Cinderella and her cruel stepmother and ugly stepsisters has been interpreted in countless ways across different genres. Gioachino Rossini’s La Cenerentola is perhaps the most famous operatic version of the Cinderella story, and it is like no other interpretation. This opera has no fairy godmother, no pumpkin that turns into a carriage, and no glass slipper. However, unlike most other operas, it has a happy ending. The production is rated TV-PG and will air on Great Performances at the Met in HD on Saturday, August 15 at Noon on PBS (check local listings) and on WNET/THIRTEEN on Thursday, August 20 at 9 p.m.

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.

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