So it was reported by Reuters news agency a day after the historic event which saw the tenor following in the distinguished footsteps of opera superstars Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo, both of whom have given memorable Central Park performances.

Andrea Bocelli Live in Central Park airs on THIRTEEN’s Great Performances, Friday December 2 at 9 p.m. ET (check local listings). Accompanied by the New York Philharmonic, under the direction of music director Alan Gilbert, the spectacular event was Bocelli’s special gift to New York City. The program is the New York-based offering of the multi-city PBS Arts Fall Festival, which includes four Great Performances productions. Award-winning journalist Paula Zahn is the evening’s host.

Watch a preview:

Widely regarded as the most popular Italian tenor in the world with more than 70 million albums sold, Bocelli was joined that rainy, windswept evening by pop stars Céline Dion, Tony Bennett, Chris Botti and David Foster, and from the classical world, bass baritone Bryn Terfel, sopranos Ana María Martínez and Pretty Yende, and violinist Nicola Benedetti, along with the Westminster Symphonic Choir, under the direction of Joe Miller. Bocelli presented a varied repertoire that includes well known arias, fan favorites, and some new surprises.

Since Great Performances introduced American television audiences to Bocelli with 1997’s Romanza concert, Bocelli has been featured in a notable series of Great Performances specials, including Sacred Arias, Amore, Vivere, My Christmas and American Dream, his spectacular “Statue of Liberty” concert from New Jersey’s Liberty State Park.

The night began promisingly as the setting sun cast a golden glow on the New York skyline, but as Maestro Gilbert struck up the portentous strains of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino overture, a light but steady rain fell over the crowd of some tens of thousands of New Yorkers, and those who had come much farther, to see him. Though umbrellas were raised, and a chilly wind began to blow, fans were swept up in the beauty of the music and the presence of their idol. “In spite of the rain and cold, you are heroes,” Bocelli assured the adoring crowd.

The first act of stirring operatic selections including Verdi and Puccini favorites gave way to more popular fare in the second including duets with Celine Dion and Tony Bennett.

The program:

La Forza del Destino Ouverture
Alan Gilbert, New York Philharmonic

“La donna ė mobile” (Rigoletto)
Andrea Bocelli

“Di quella pira” (Il Trovatore)
Andrea Bocelli

“Va Tosca! (Te Deum)” (Tosca)
Bryn Terfel, Choir

“Ave Maria ‘Ellens dritter Gesang’”
Andrea Bocelli

“Vicino a te s’acqueta” (Andrea Chenier)
Andrea Bocelli, Ana Maria Martinez

“Au fond du temple saint” (Les Pêcheurs de Perles)
Andrea Bocelli, Bryn Terfel

“O Soave Fanciulla” (La Bohème)
Andrea Bocelli, Pretty Yende

“Libiano ne’lieti calici” (La Traviata)
Andrea Bocelli, Pretty Yende, Choir

“Home on the Range”
Bryn Terfel, Choir

“En Aranjuez con tu amor”
Andrea Bocelli, Nicola Benedetti (violin)

“’O Sole Mio”
Andrea Bocelli, Choir

“Once Upon a Time in the West”
Andrea Bocelli

Andrea Bocelli, David Foster, Chris Botti (trumpet)

“Volare”
Andrea Bocelli, David Foster

“The Prayer”
Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion, David Foster

“New York, New York”
Andrea Bocelli, Tony Bennett

“Amazing Grace”
Andrea Bocelli, Choir

“Time to Say Goodbye”
Andrea Bocelli, Ana Maria Martinez, Choir

“Nessun Dorma” (Turandot) (encore)
Andrea Bocelli, Choir

Bocelli’s performance was the latest in a rich tradition of memorable free concerts in Central Park which, over the years, has included such notable performers as Barbra Streisand, Simon and Garfunkel, Diana Ross, Garth Brooks, Bob Marley and the Wailers, and Bon Jovi.

Before the concert, Bocelli nostalgically reflected, “I cannot help but smile when thinking about the upcoming concert in Central Park. It was my father’s dream, and my father was right, because my artistic path would have been entirely different without the strong and sincere embrace of this extraordinary city where everything is possible, even when it seems impossible. My father will not be there, but I can count on his blessing and his kind and gentle smile to give me courage. My mother, sitting in the front row, will feel my father, too, and they will be together again just like when I was a little boy performing on the fireplace steps. Perhaps they had secretly dreamed that I might have the opportunity to perform in New York City, and maybe right here in Central Park.”

Concerto: One Night In Central Park will also be released on CD , DVD and CD+DVD by Sugar/Decca on November 14th.

Great Performances is a production of THIRTEEN for WNET New York Public Media, one of America’s most prolific and respected public media providers. For nearly 50 years, WNET has been producing and broadcasting national and local arts programming to the New York community.

Andrea Bocelli Live in Central Park is directed by David Horn. For Great Performances, Mitch Owgang and Andrea Cotromano are producers; Bill O’Donnell is series producer; David Horn and Filippo Sugar are executive producers.

Barilla is the main sponsor of the concert event and the television broadcast. Major funding for the Great Performances telecast is provided by Vivian Milstein, the Starr Foundation, the Irene Diamond Fund, the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, Joseph A. Wilson, public television viewers, and PBS.

In remembrance and renewal, THIRTEEN’S Great Performances will broadcast A Concert for New York , performed by the New York Philharmonic on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of 9/11 , led by Music Director Alan Gilbert, taped the previous night at a free concert in Avery Fisher Hall at New York’s Lincoln Center.

Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Resurrection — featuring soprano Dorothea Röschmann mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung, and the New York Choral Artists — will air Sunday, September 11 at 9:30 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings). The concert will also be broadcast internationally that same day.

Great Performances is a presentation of THIRTEEN for WNET, one of America’s most prolific and respected public media providers. For nearly 50 years, WNET has been producing and broadcasting national and local arts programming to the New York community.

“Mahler‘s Second Symphony, Resurrection, powerfully and profoundly explores the range of emotions provoked by the memories of 9/11,” said Gilbert. “This great masterpiece has a very special place in the history and psyche of the New York Philharmonic, but its message of renewal and rebirth is universal. We offer it as a tribute to those lost ten years ago.”

Composed between 1888 and 1894, Gustav Mahler‘s Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, is an all- encompassing work, complete with a triumphant final movement for voices and orchestra in the tradition of Beethoven‘s Symphony No. 9.

The idea for the finale of the Resurrection Symphony came to Mahler in a flash of inspiration while he was attending the memorial service of Hans von Bülow, his benefactor and predecessor as conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic. The composer was just then struggling to find a text suitable to his lofty intensions. As he described it: “The mood in which I sat there and thought of the departed one was exactly that of the work which, at the time, occupied me constantly; at that moment the chorus near the organ intoned the Klopstock chorale, ‘Aufersteh’n! [Arise!]‘ It struck me like a thunderbolt and everything stood clear and vivid before my soul.”

Mahler‘s setting of the 18th-century German poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock‘s ode builds in majesty and intensity, as the Resurrection is depicted in a paean of triumph. The Philharmonic gave the work‘s U.S. premiere in December 1908, when the composer led the New York Symphony (which merged with the New York Philharmonic in 1928 to form today‘s New York Philharmonic), and has now performed the work a total of 28 times.

Music Director Alan Gilbert, the Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, began his tenure at the New York Philharmonic in September 2009. The first native New Yorker to hold the post, he ushered in what The New York Times called “an adventurous new era” at the Philharmonic. In the 2010-11 season Mr. Gilbert led the Orchestra on two tours of European music capitals; two performances at Carnegie Hall, including the venue‘s 120th Anniversary Concert, which was broadcast on Great Performances; and conducted the acclaimed staged presentation of Janaček‘s The Cunning Little Vixen.

Born in Flensburg, Germany, soprano Dorothea Röschmann made her critically acclaimed debut at the 1995 Salzburg Festival as Susanna in Mozart‘s The Marriage of Figaro. At The Metropolitan Opera she has sung the Mozartean roles of Susanna, Pamina (The Magic Flute), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), and Ilia (Idomeneo) with James Levine.

Mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung has performed with the New York, Los Angeles, and Vienna philharmonic orchestras; She has also appeared at many of the world‘s finest opera houses including The Metropolitan Opera, and has given numerous recitals worldwide.

New York Choral Artists, a professional chorus founded and directed by Joseph Flummerfelt, has been heard with the New York Philharmonic in recent seasons performing repertoire ranging from Michael Tippett‘s A Child of Our Time to Mozart‘s Requiem.

A Concert for New York is directed by Michael Beyer. For Great Performances, John Walker and Cara Cosentino are producers; Bill O’Donnell is series producer; David Horn is executive producer.

Credit Suisse is the Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic. Major funding for the Great Performances telecast is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, the Irene Diamond Fund, Vivian Milstein, LuEsther T. Mertz, the Starr Foundation, the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, Joseph A. Wilson, public television viewers, and PBS.

The eclectic, crowd-pleasing program is set to include Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C major, Op. 56, performed by Ax, Ma, and Shaham, a selection of Duke Ellington songs – including “Solitude,” “Sophisticated Lady,” “On a Turquoise Cloud,” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing” — performed by McDonald, and full performances of Antonin Dvořák’s Carnival Overture and George Gershwin’s An American in Paris.

Carnegie Hall 120th Anniversary Concert — featuring the works of Ludwig von Beethoven, Duke Ellington, Antonin Dvořák, and George Gershwin — will air as part of Great Performances on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 from 8-9:30 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings).

Great Performances is a production of THIRTEEN for WNET, one of America’s most prolific and respected public media partners.

The eclectic, crowd-pleasing program is set to include Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C major, Op. 56, performed by Ax, Ma, and Shaham, a selection of Duke Ellington songs – including “Solitude,” “Sophisticated Lady,” “On a Turquoise Cloud,” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing” — performed by McDonald, and full performances of Antonin Dvořák’s Carnival Overture and George Gershwin’s An American in Paris.

Dvořák conducted his Carnival Overture with the Boston Symphony at Carnegie Hall when he came to New York to assume his post as director of the National Conservatory of Music on October 21, 1892.

Gershwin’s An American in Paris was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, and conducted by Walter Damrosch in the New York premiere on December 13, 1928 at Carnegie Hall. (The concert hall was the home base of the New York Philharmonic until the orchestra moved to its current location at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall in 1962.)

Ellington played his first historic Carnegie Hall concert on January 23, 1943, beginning an extraordinary series of concerts there of his long-form works.

In the late 1800’s, New York City was emerging as an international capital, and composers were flourishing in the classical world. In 1891, Carnegie Hall, founded by industrialist and entrepreneur Andrew Carnegie, opened its doors as simply “Music Hall” on May 5, 1891 with none other than Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky conducting. It was renamed “Carnegie Hall” in 1893 when Carnegie allowed the use of his name and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962.

Carnegie Hall 120th Anniversary Concert is a co-production of Carnegie Hall and THIRTEEN for WNET.  For Great Performances, John Walker, Cara Cosentino, and Mitch Owgang are producers; Bill O’Donnell is series producer; and David Horn is executive producer. It will be directed for television by Brian Large.

Major funding for the Great Performances telecast is provided by The National Endowment for the Arts, The Anna Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, the Arlene and Milton D. Berkman Philanthropic Fund, The Lillian Goldman Programming Endowment, Victor and Sono Elmaleh, Vivian Milstein, the Starr Foundation, the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, and Joseph A. Wilson, with additional funding in memory of Virginia and Leonard Marx.

The television broadcast of this concert is supported by S. Donald Sussman, with additional support to Carnegie Hall from the National Endowment for the Arts.

GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET launches its third season on PBS with the Metropolitan Opera premiere of Doctor Atomic, John Adams’ powerful portrait of the physicist presiding over the creation of the atom bomb, Monday, December 29 at 9 p.m. ET (check local listings). Presented by Thirteen/WNET New York in high definition and 5.1 digital surround sound, the 2005 work stars Canadian baritone Gerald Finley as the Faustian J. Robert Oppenheimer, “Father of the A-Bomb.” Alan Gilbert conducts.

Watch a preview:

UPDATE: Read an interview conducted by Thirteen.org with John Adams.

“An ambitious, haunting work,” proclaimed The New York Times of Penny Woolcock’s cinematic new production, with special praise for Finley (“vocally visceral and emotionally nuanced”) and Gilbert. “The performance he draws from the Met Orchestra and Chorus is a revelation. This score continues to impress as Mr. Adams’ most complex and masterly music.”

The Pulitzer Prize-winning composer (On the Transmigration of Souls) often tackles contemporary and controversial subjects, such as his first opera, 1987’s Nixon in China. The second, The Death of Klinghoffer, followed in 1991, with Doctor Atomic having its world premiere at San Francisco Opera 14 years later. This production marks his Met debut.

Set in New Mexico in the summer of 1945, as scientists, led by Oppenheimer, and the military prepare to test the first nuclear bomb, the work neatly limns events that will radically change the course of history. “Adams has created a score filled with color, syncopation and lush interludes,” wrote Associated Press.

Doctor Atomic, sung in English to Peter Sellars’ libretto, is directed for television by Gary Halvorson and hosted by acclaimed Met mezzo Susan Graham. Julian Crouch designed the sets; Catherine Zuber the costumes; Brian MacDevitt the lighting. Andrew Dawson is choreographer. The production was transmitted as part of The Met: Live in HD series on November 8, 2008 and was recorded for this telecast.

Bonus material includes a feature on J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Also in the large cast are mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke as Oppenheimer’s wife, Kitty; bass-baritone Richard Paul Fink (Edward Teller); bass-baritone Eric Owens (General Leslie Groves); tenor Thomas Glenn (Robert Wilson); and contralto Meredith Arwady (Pasqualita).

The Met’s new production of Doctor Atomic was underwritten through a generous grant from Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman. Funding for the GREAT PERFORMANCES telecast of Doctor Atomic is being provided by The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

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.