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This comprehensive performance documentary, the first profile of the tenor in a decade, features the celebrated tenor – and general director of both the Washington National Opera and the Los Angeles Opera – as he looks back and reflects with heartfelt candor on his choicest roles from opera houses around the world.

The story of Domingo’s roots in Spain is interwoven with his famous performance as Don Jose in Carmen at the Vienna Staatsoper, while his reminiscences about his childhood in Mexico inform his acclaimed performance in El Gato Montes from LA Opera.

Other excerpts – several of them culled from earlier Great Performances telecasts — includes Ernani and I Pagliacci from La Scala (the latter seen in the Franco Zeffirelli film version); La Gioconda from the Vienna State Opera; Andrea Chénier, The Tales of Hoffmann, Otello and The Girl of the Golden West from The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Luisa Miller and Simon Boccanegra from the Metropolitan Opera; Samson and Dalila from the San Francisco Opera; and the Emmy-winning Tosca from Rome (Cavarodossi from “Tosca” is his all-time favorite role, he states).

Among the celebrated female costars glimpsed with Domingo over the years are the late Shirley Verrett, Ileana Cotrubas, Kiri Te Kanawa, Renata Scotto, Teresa Stratas, Carol Neblett, Elena Obraztsova, Adrianne Pieczonka and Agnes Baltsa.

He has appeared in over 3,500 performances in over 130 roles, a number unmatched by any other celebrated tenor in history. He has also conducted upwards of 450 performances; is founder of the Operalia international singing competition. He has won 11 Grammy Awards, and two Emmy Awards, one of them for 1983’s Plácido Domingo Celebrates Seville on Great Performances, the other for 1992’s The Metropolitan Opera Silver Anniversary Gala. In October 2009 he was awarded the million dollar Birgit Nilsson Prize, the most prestigious prize in opera.

He crossed over from the world of classical music into the mainstream in the 1990s when he teamed up with fellow tenors Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras to form The Three Tenors, whose worldwide performances brought opera to a brand new audience. There are glowing tributes from Carreras and the late Pavarotti on their versatile colleague.

At the age of 68, Domingo embarked on his very first as baritone in an opera, Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, and followed it with the title role of another Verdi classic, Rigoletto, airing Friday, July 15 at 9 p.m. ET on Great Performances. Rigoletto from Mantua, which aired live in Europe last year, was shot in sumptuous locations in that city.

Also forthcoming on Great Performances as part of the PBS Arts Fall Festival is the world premiere performance of the late Daniel Catán’s Il Postino, based on the popular 1994 Italian film, with Domingo as the poet Pablo Neruda.

Produced and directed by Chris Hunt, Placido Domingo: My Favorite Roles is an Iambic Media Production in association with THIRTEEN for WNET. For Great Performances, John Walker is producer; Bill O’Donnell is series producer; and David Horn is executive producer.

Great Performances is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, the Irene Diamond Fund, The Lillian Goldman Programming Endowment, the Starr Foundation, Vivian Milstein, the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, and Joseph A. Wilson.

Don Perdue-Thirteen/WNET New York

GREAT PERFORMANCES marks the first anniversary of the passing of one of opera’s most cherished voices with Pavarotti: A Life in Seven Arias, Wednesday, September 10 at 9 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings). Presented by Thirteen/WNET New York and combining archival and rarely seen performance footage with fresh reminiscences by friends and colleagues, the 90-minute musical feast offers a concise yet compelling look at the tenor’s meteoric career trajectory. From soccer-playing son of a Modena, Italy, baker to onstage partner of “La Stupenda,” world-renowned soprano Joan Sutherland, from media darling to truly one-of-a-kind superstar, it is a story writ as large as the great one himself.

But, as all agree, it was the voice, with its unique golden timbre, that will be the enduring legacy. His recordings of the 1960s, ’70s and early ’80s offer the definitive performances of the great romantic operas – Rigoletto, Turandot, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Fille du Regiment, among them.

“I think that Luciano had the sun in his voice,” says fellow Three Tenors partner Jose Carreras. “It was such a bright, pure sound.” “One of the greatest ever,” adds the third illustrious member of the trio, Placido Domingo.

Assembled by acclaimed filmmaker David Thompson (GREAT PERFORMANCES’ Busby Berkley: Through the Roof, Copland’s America), Carreras and Domingo are joined by sopranos Sutherland, Montserrat Caballe and Renata Scotto; p.r. whiz Herbert Breslin, credited with creating the Pavarotti Phenomenon; and Terri Robson, the tenor’s manager from 2000 until his death. Also on hand: delightful young Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez, who tells of dialing the maestro on his cell, moments before stepping on stage at Covent Garden to attempt the killer high C’s aria, “Pour mon ame,” made famous there by his idol 40 years earlier.

“I said I feel a certain emotion, and he said, ‘Great, I know you are there. You’re gonna do great.’”

The seven arias, and the chapters they represent in the singer’s life, are:

1) “Che gelida manina,” from Puccini’s La Boheme, the opera that marked Pavarotti’s debut and shown here in a rare 1965 performance from Modena with Mirella Freni.

2) “Pour mon ame,” from Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment, the work he toured with Joan Sutherland. Its famous aria and nine astronomical high notes he detonated from the stage at Covent Garden earned him the sobriquet King of the High Cs.

3) “Panis Angelicus,” the haunting Cesar Franck work he sang as a youth in Modena with his father. The duet affords a visit to his beloved hometown and a chance to recall friends there and participation in the city’s renowned Rossini Chorale.

4) “Questa o quella,” from Verdi’s Rigoletto, marking the beginning of the Pavarotti media blitz.

5) “Nessun dorma,” from Puccini’s Turandot, the aria he makes his own and immortalizes in the first Three Tenors concert.

6) “E lucevan le stelle,” from Puccini’s Tosca, underscores the last years and final Met performance.

7) “Ingemisco,” from the Verdi Requiem.

Valiant to the end – it was pancreatic cancer that felled him at age 71 – Luciano Pavarotti faced his “charmed” life with a clear eye and hard-won honesty. “We go on the stage every night with the same feeling: we are afraid,” he told an interviewer in 1979. “If somebody tells you (otherwise), the man is a liar.”

Related Links

• The Official Web site of Luciano Pavarotti
• Luciano Pavarotti’s Wikipedia Entry
• The New York Times: Luciano Pavarotti Is Dead at 71

GREAT PERFORMANCES is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, Vivian Milstein, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS. Major funding for this telecast was provided by The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund and the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust.

Joe Sinnott-Thirteen/WNET New York

Pavarotti’s friends and colleagues remember his life. Read what they have to say of the late master.

“He was like a, let’s say prima donna? Yes, why not? Prima donna can be also a tenor, and we need prima donnas on stage to catch the audience’s attention.” — Soprano Renata Scotto

“Outside the opera world, Caruso became the first tenor with universal fame because his was the first voice credible on record. He was the first best-seller. Half a century (later), along comes Pavarotti and he redefines that model for a mass public.” — Critic Norman Lebrecht

“He was always touching her up and trying to find how she breathed. I think she did influence him because she is so conscious of technique. In fact, she gets cross when she hears young singers trying to sing all the difficult works without the technique that’s necessary.” — Conductor Richard Bonynge, on Joan Sutherland’s influence

“We did L’Elisir (d’Amore) three times and I think it was the role I enjoyed him most in. He was cheeky, and he came on and got the audience in the palm of his hand. He just moved them, and that’s what the business is about, isn’t it?” — Director John Copley

“When we saw him later in life, one thought of him as a lazy tenor; who felt that all he needed do was to get on stage and beam and not really move about. Well, in those years when he did the major recordings, he worked very, very hard, and the results stand the test of time. They are as close to recorded perfection as you can get in those roles.” — Norman Lebrecht

“He was very interested in his high notes. He always wanted Decca to record (them) before he sang anything else, which I didn’t like very much. And he wanted to hear his voice louder that anybody else’s. In the control room I used to say ‘turn him up, turn the others down, and he’ll be happy.’ And he was.” — Richard Bonynge

“This great face, this great voice. The sound of that voice hadn’t been heard for many years. He gave you goose pimples; he made the hair on your hands stand on edge.” — Manager Herbert Breslin

“Happiness in the voice, that’s very important. Pavarotti had happiness in the voice. His technique was based on clarity, on the words, on the vowels. This is something I learned (from) listening to him. It’s important, especially in a tenor, that the words come across, and you can understand them” — Tenor Juan Diego Florez

“Pavarotti understood he had to get out of the opera house. He had (manager Herbert) Breslin, who started putting him into public arenas – where he could sing in front of five or ten thousand people – and who could put him into Hollywood – where he was a complete disaster in a film called Yes, Giorgio. He shouldn’t have gone near that sort of thing, but there was this craving to extend the Pavarotti brand beyond the opera house.” — Norman Lebrecht

“The personality was partly his own and partly created by the publicity. I think the idea of the handkerchief, et cetera, was created just to make something that was not of the normal.” — Tenor Placido Domingo

“He invited artists from the world of pop music to sing with him; he knew he’d raise a lot more money that way. But he loved the experience. He found it difficult to sing pop, but he loved (that) world. He loved meeting Sting, Bono, Stevie Wonder. And some of the artists became really good friends. Bono was like a son to him.” — Manager Terri Robson, on the Pavarotti & Friends charity concerts

“I am a servant of the audience. The public understand(s) and give(s) me back the love with applause.” — Luciano Pavarotti

Producer: Daniel Ross, Colin Fitzpatrick
Graphic Art: Gabriel Torres
Technical Director: Brian Lee
Production Assistant: Diana Cofresí-Terrero
HTML Implementation: Brian Santalone

GREAT PERFORMANCES Web pages copyright
© 2008 Educational Broadcasting Corporation.

Thirteen Online is a production of Thirteen/WNET New York’s Kravis Multimedia Education Center in New York City. Anthony Chapman, Director of Interactive & Broadband. Bob Adleman, Business Manager. Tamara E. Robinson, Vice President & Director, Programming.

Television Credits

“GREAT PERFORMANCES: PAVAROTTI: A LIFE IN SEVEN ARIAS “

Produced and Directed by
DAVID THOMPSON

Executive Producer
PETER MANIURA

Film Editor
COLIN MINCHIN

Production Executive
RACHEL WRIGHT

Narration
RONNIE FARER

Assistant Producer
CAT DIXON

Production Co-Coordinator
PAT SMYLIE

Production
WILLIE NORTON
ROZ EDWARDS

Camera
MALCOM HICKS
ALAN SMITH
BRUNO SORRENTINO
LEO SCHWEITZER
CHRIS SQUASHIC
BOB LONG

Sound
MICHAEL WHITEHOUSE
CHRIS CALLUS

New York Interviews
KAREN MCLAUGHLIN

Special thanks
DECCA MUSIC GROUP LIMITED
TERRI ROBSON ASSOCIATES
C-MAJOR ENTERTAINMENT
THE METROPOLITAN OPERA, NEW YORK
RAI TRADE
THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE, COVENT GARDEN
VICTORIA AND ALBERT PICTURE LIBRARY
DOMINIC PHOTOGRAPHY
CLIVE BARDA
GETTY IMAGES
ARCHIVIO PAVAROTTI
ARENA
FRANCIS HANLY
ERICA BANKS
CARLO MARIA CELLA
PETER CLARK
UNITEL CLASSICA

For Decca Music Group Limited
Executive Producer
BEN PATEMAN

For Great Performances
Producer
JOHN WALKER

Coordinating Producer
CARA COSENTINO

Editors
MITCH JACOBSON
MICHAEL PILGRIM

Post Production Audio
JON BERMAN

Graphic Design
BRIAN WHITEHILL

Series Producer
BILL O’DONNELL

Executive Producer
DAVID HORN

A BBC Production
in association with
Thirteen/WNET New York

Copyright BBC MMVII
Additional Materials Copyright Educational Broadcasting Corporation and Decca Music Group Limited MMVIII

The contents of these GREAT PERFORMANCES Web pages are copyrighted under United States and other copyright laws. You may not download, reproduce, transmit, display, distribute or make derivative works from the contents of the GREAT PERFORMANCES Web pages other than for personal use without the advance written permission of the copyright owner. Any unauthorized use of any of the contents of the GREAT PERFORMANCES Online Web pages may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution.

Producer: Anu Krishnan
Art Director: Sabina Daley
Designer & Flash Programmer: Karen Mattson
Graphic Art: Karen Mattson
Technical Director: Brian Lee
PHP Scripting: Ben Chappel
Production Assistant: Diana Cofresí-Terrero
Copy Editor: Leslie Kriesel
HTML Implementation Assistance: Brian Santalone

GREAT PERFORMANCES Web pages copyright © 2002 Educational Broadcasting Corporation.

Thirteen Online is a production of Thirteen/WNET New York’s Kravis Multimedia Education Center in New York City. Anthony Chapman, Director of Interactive & Broadband. Bob Adleman, Business Manager. Carmen DiRienzo, Vice President and Managing Director, Corporate Affairs.

About the Writer

Samantha Gleisten is a journalist and playwright based in Chicago. Her theater reviews can be found at Centerstage.net.

Television Credits

Executive Producers
John Beug and David Horn

Directed by
David Horn

Staged by
Daniel Ezralow

Created by
Daniel Ezralow & Josh Groban

Co-Produced by
Brian Avnet

Producer
Angela Fairhurst

Editor
Gary Bradley

Production Designer
Bruce Ryan

Lighting Designer
Simon Miles

Music Produced and Mixed by
David Foster & Humberto Gatica

Conductor
William Ross

Musical Director
Zachary Provost

Projection Design
Amy Shock

Art Director
Griff Lambert

Associate Producer
Richard A. Pizante

Coordinating Producer
Mona Niemiec

Associate Director
Robin Felsen von Halle

Stage Managers
Valdez Flagg
Peter M. Margolis
Debbie Williams

Technical Director
Cliff Miracle

Camera Operators
Ted Ashton
Danny Bonilla
Manny Bonilla
Hank Geving
Larry Heider
Wayne Orr
Kenny Patterson
Danny Webb
Kris Wilson

Video Control
Guy Jones

Video Tape OP
Fred Quillen

Production Manager
Marti Ramirez

Production Supervisor
Allison Miller

Script Supervisor
Michele Zugschwerdt

Production Coordinator
Bart Peters

Production Staff
Dave Corey
Chontel Crenshaw
Stephen McAghon
Chip McCuiston
Patrick McMahon
Denise Pizante
Johnathan Feid
Kristanna Zubchevich

Staging Supervisor
Al Moses

Gaffer
Tom Birt

Music Contractors
Sandy DeCrescent
David J. Low

Music Librarian
Matthew Della Pola

Recording Engineers
Guy Charbonneau
Humberto Gatica

Assistant Engineer
Chris Brook

Audio Mixer
Ish Garcia

Sound Coordinator/PA Mixer
Chris Taylor

Monitor Mixers
Mike Parker
Pierre Requena
John E. Kusnirik

RF PLS
John Arenas

A2’s
Steve Anderson
Danny Cruz
Craig Rovello
Pete San Filipo

Audio
Charlie Bouis
Ted Barela
Ian C. Charbonneau
James Fahlgren

Pro Tool Digital Editing
Dave Reitzis

Pro Tool Engineer
Joe Wohlmuth

Utilities
Dan Andersen
Charlie Fernandez
Dan Frizzell
Frank Linder
Scott Spiegel

Wardrobe Handler
Carla Coffee

Key Makeup
Rita Marie Beeman

Angie Stone’s Makeup
Joanetta Stowers

Technical Facilities
Sweetwater Video Productions
ATK Audiotek
Centerstaging
Le Mobile

Post-Production Facilities
Handmade Video
Chartmaker Studios
Sony Music Studios
Westlake Audio

Rehearsal Space
SIR Music
Centerstaging

Projection
American Hi Def

For Josh Groban

Vocal Coach
David Romano

Production Coordinator
Lynne Malone

Assistant
Jimmy Lee

Hair
Jillanne O’Neill

Makeup
Lauren Kaye Cohen

The Band
Leader/Keyboards
Zachary Provost

Electric Guitar
Tariqh Akoni

Percussion
Timothy Curle

Bass
Eric Holden

Drums
John Robinson

Acoustic Guitar
Ramon Stagnaro

The Orchestra
Nico Carmine Abondolo
Phillip Ayling
Emily Bernstein
Roberto Cani
Franklyn D’Antonio
Sandy DeCrescent
Matthew Della Polla
Bruce Dukov
Steve Erdody
Steve Forman
Matthew Funes
Armen Garabedian
Gregory Goodall
Endre Granat
Gary Gray
Michael E. Grego
Alan Grunfeld
Amy Hershberger
Dennis Karmazyn
Armen Ksajikian
Stephen Kujala
Sungil Lee
Dimitrie Leivici
Gayle Levant
Phillip Levy
David Low
Robin Olson
Simon Oswel
Karie L. Prescott
Shanti D. Randall
Eric W. Rigler
Rafel Rishik
Mark Robertson
John Scanlon
Haim Shtrum
Andrew T. Shulman
David Speltz
Sheridon Stokes
Lisa M. Sutton
James W. Thachter
Richard Todd
Sebastian Toettcher
Michael Valerio
James Walker
David F. Walther
Phillip Edward Yao
Kenneth Yerke

David Foster appears courtesy of 143 Records/Atlantic Recording Corporation
Lili Haydn appears courtesy of the RCA Records Label
Andrea Corr appears courtesy of 143 Records/Lava Records/
Atlantic Recording Corporation
Angie Stone appears courtesy of J Records Inc.
Rhys Fulber appears courtesy of Nettwerk Productions

Songs/Writer/Publisher

“Alla Luce Del Sole”
Music: Maurizio Fabrizio
Lyrics: Guido Morra
Universal Music Italia

“You’re Still You”
Music: Ennio Morricone
Lyrics: Linda Thompson
RTI Music SIAE admin. by Bamboo Tattoo, Inc. in the U.S./Brandon Brody Music/Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. BMI. All rights on behalf of Brandon Brody Music adm. by Warner-Tamerlane Pub. Corp. BMI

“Vincent Starry, Starry Night”
Don McLean
Benny Bird Co., Inc. administered by Songs of Universal, Inc. BMI
Produced and arranged by David Foster

“Gira Con Me Questa Notte”
Lyrics: Lucio Quarantotto
Music: David Foster/Walter Afanasieff
Sugar-Melodi, Inc. ASCAP/143 Music/Peermusic Ltd. BMI/Chartmaker Music/Sony/ATV Tunes LLC/Wallyworld Music ASCAP

“Un Amore Per Sempre”
Music: Walter Afanasieff
Lyrics: Marco Marinangeli
Sony/ATV Tunes LLC/Wallyworld Music/Dither Music Publishing Co./Halaron Music ASCAP

“Alejate”
Albert Hammond/Marti Sharron
Albert Hammond Enterprises all rights admin. by WB Music Corp. ASCAP/Mining Gold Music BMI
Spanish adaptation by Claudia Brant

“Broken Vow”
Walter Afanasieff/Laura Crokert
Sony Tunes Inc./Wally World Music/Sony/ATV ASCAP

“To Where You Are”
Music: Richard Marx
Lyrics: Linda Thompson
Chi-Boy Music ASCAP/Brandon Brody Music/Warner-Tamerlane Pub. Corp. BMI. All rights on behalf of Brandon Brody Music adm. by Warner-Tamerlane Pub. Corp. BMI

“Cinema Paradiso Se”
Music by Ennio Morricone & Andrea Morricone
Lyrics by Alessio De Sensi
EMI General Music SRL c/o EMI April Music Inc. ASCAP

“For Always”
Music by John Williams
Lyrics by Cynthia Weil
Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp/Songs of DreamWorks/Dyad Music, Ltd. BMI

“Home To Stay”
Amy Foster-Gillies/Jeremy Lubbock
EMI Blackwood Music Inc./Maida Vale Music BMI/Rosongs-Music Pieces

“Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”
Johann Sebastian Bach

“Canto Alla Vita”
Giuseppe Dettori/A. Galbiati/A. Rapetti
EMI Blackwood Music Inc. obo EMI Music Publishing Italia SRL BMI

“The Prayer”
Words and Music by Carole Bayer Sager and David Foster
Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp. BMI
Italian translation: Alberto Testa and Tony Renis

“Let Me Fall” from Cirque du Soleil
James Corcoran/Jutras Benoit
Gog and Magog Music/Meandres Inc. Creations SOCAN

A production of Warner Bros. Records Inc. and Thirteen/WNET New York

© 2002 Reprise Records/143 Records

The contents of these GREAT PERFORMANCES Web pages are copyrighted under United States and other copyright laws. You may not download, reproduce, transmit, display, distribute or make derivative works from the contents of the GREAT PERFORMANCES Web pages other than for personal use without the advance written permission of the copyright owner. Any unauthorized use of any of the contents of the GREAT PERFORMANCES Online Web pages may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution.

Performers

Josh Groban

David Foster

John Williams

Lili Haydn

Andrea Corr

Angie Stone

The Band

Zachary Provost: Leader/Keyboards

Tariqh Akoni: Electric Guitar

Timothy Curle: Percussion

Eric Holden: Bass

John Robinson: Drums

Ramon Stagnaro: Acoustic Guitar

The Orchestra

Nico Carmine Abondolo

Phillip Ayling

Emily Bernstein

Roberto Cani

Franklyn D’Antonio

Sandy DeCrescent

Matthew Della Polla

Bruce Dukov

Steve Erdody

Steve Forman

Matthew Funes

Armen Garabedian

Gregory Goodall

Endre Granat

Gary Gray

Michael E. Grego

Alan Grunfeld

Amy Hershberger

Dennis Karmazyn

Armen Ksajikian

Stephen Kujala

Sungil Lee

Dimitrie Leivici

Gayle Levant

Phillip Levy

David Low

Robin Olson

Simon Oswel

Karie L. Prescott

Shanti D. Randall

Eric W. Rigler

Rafel Rishik

Mark Robertson

John Scanlon

Haim Shtrum

Andrew T. Shulman

David Speltz

Sheridon Stokes

Lisa M. Sutton

James W. Thachter

Richard Todd

Sebastian Toettcher

Michael Valerio

James Walker

David F. Walther

Phillip Edward Yao

Kenneth Yerke

William Ross: Conductor

Question 1: Is everybody in your family as musically inclined as you?

Answer: My family is pretty musical in that they enjoy and appreciate music from all genres. When I was young, they really made sure I was exposed to some great music, and I definitely got my ear from my dad, who learned to play both piano and trumpet by ear when he was in high school and college. My younger brother plays guitar, but his real passion is film.

Question 2: What do you love most about singing?

Answer: Singing brings out in me what I can’t normally bring out in everyday life. It’s an incredible feeling to be able to bare your soul to people you’ve never met in a way that can make them understand so clearly what you mean. That’s what I love most about singing … it becomes my truest form of communication.

Question 3: The music you sing is beautiful, to say the least, but you’re a pretty good drummer as well. Did you ever aspire to be a professional drummer, or is it merely a pastime for you?

Answer: Yay! Thanks for this question. I LOVE the drums. I’ve always bought CDs that were drum heavy and featured amazing drummers, and it’s been my main hobby for the last five years. I hope one day to join a band as a drummer, but in the meantime the most professional it will get is a little bit on tour or on my next album if I get brave enough.

Question 4: What kind of advice would you give to someone who dreams of a career in vocal music and acting? It is frustrating with so many ups and downs.

Answer: When I found out that I had “the bug” for music and acting, something just turned on like a light switch and I … [had] a one-track mind that I HAD to get as much training as possible and go for it one day. There are many ups and downs, but the one thing that I’ve learned that has helped me is that for someone starting out it takes two things (besides talent) … unending drive and patience. Immerse yourself in your craft and study other artists around you as much as you train yourself. Other than that, it can come down to being at the right place at the right time. But if you’re driven enough and you’re prepared, your chances of that happening are much greater. Good luck!

Josh Groban: Well, even back when we were first starting to make the CD, really as far back as when I was in high school, I always dreamed of one day doing a show on PBS, because I had grown up watching so many great PBS performances and being inspired by them. All the shows on GREAT PERFORMANCES — “Sunday in the Park with George” was the first musical I ever saw and it was on TV, it was on PBS, with Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters, and then “Sweeney Todd” with George Hearn and Angela Lansbury. It really kind of introduced me … to a whole new world out there that I wanted to be a part of. So, when we were making the CD and the CD was done and we were trying to build a fan base, I knew that eventually — I had hoped, at least — that I would do a television concert at some point in my career. And I hoped that it would be on PBS. I never thought that it would happen at 21. It was just something that I always kind of knew that I would do, and so the entire process of it was just such a joy to do because it was like a dream come true.

GP: Can you tell me a little bit about the process of doing the PBS special? From the idea to the actual taping.

JG: Well, I had never done a TV special before. I’ve had to build a team around me to make an album, but I’ve never had to work with a team that had so much more to think about than just recording music for an album. We were essentially recording an album, but we were doing it with production trucks and video cameras and an audience and a stage. Filming a TV special is extremely difficult because you’re on a budget, you’re on a time limit, and the pressure is on to get it right, right away. Not to mention the pressure is on for me, to have something in my hand that I’m going to watch for the rest of my life and make sure that it’s something that I am absolutely proud of. So the planning stages were many, many months, in terms of who I wanted to have on the show and what kind of instruments I’d like to have and what the setup would be and how to make it look unique and how to make me appear on stage the way that I’d like to do a show. I wanted the theatricality, but I didn’t want it to go too much in that direction. But on the other hand, I’m not the kind of performer that stands on stage with an orchestra behind him for the whole show.

You know, it was great, I had a great, great team around me, between my manager Brian Avnet and my stage director Danny Ezralow, who also created the show with me, and with lighting by Simon Miles. Just so many amazing people came on board, and we all sat at a big table and we said, “What about this?” “Oh yeah, that would be great,” “What about this?” “That’ll be amazing.” It was just lots of late-night coffee shop talks … then the real tough part started. The stuff that I’m not really used to, the budget meetings, and a lot of roadblocks were put up and we had to work around them and it made finishing the process, and finishing it far beyond anything I would have ever imagined, all the nicer.

GP: You mention “Sweeney Todd”; wasn’t that a show that you’ve always wanted to do? You were in a production of it at Interlochen Center for the Arts, right?

JG: That’s true; it’s so funny. Interlochen wound up being one of the greatest camp/arts school experiences that I’ve ever had. And it all started because shortly after seeing that TV special of “Sweeney Todd” I got word that that particular arts camp, which I had found out was one of the best, was putting on “Sweeney Todd.” And I said, “Oh my gosh, I want be Sweeney, that’s it. I want to be Sweeney.” I was 15 years old [and] part of me knew that there was no chance that I would be able to tackle that role or even get that role, because, you know, the lead roles go [to] the seniors. Well, I went over there and I auditioned my butt off and got Broom Sweep #3, or something like that, in the chorus, and I learned real, real early on, and it was such a valuable lesson for me, to love a show and to put all of your energy into it, whether you’re Broom Sweep #3 or Sweeney Todd. And so I was on stage for five minutes, and every other minute of the show I was sitting at the wing listening to the whole show and just loving it. I had a love for theater from a very early age. I went back the next year and I got a larger role, and … I needed to work my way up that ladder and take voice lessons and take acting classes and take whatever training I needed to be the best performer I could be.

GP: Do you have any aspirations to do more musical theater?

JG: Yeah, oh sure, at some point in my career. I was young then for the high school productions, and I’m young now for the professional productions. I want to get a little older and let my voice mature and put a little age on me before I ever audition for a Broadway show or even opera, way, way down the line. We’ll see, but for now I’m doing exactly what I want to do.

GP: Any thoughts about returning to Carnegie Mellon?

JG: The thoughts, honestly, about returning to Carnegie Mellon in particular, are probably not realistic because of its location. It is an amazing school but Pittsburgh is not, unfortunately, a place where I can be right now. And also, my entire class is graduating now so it would be kind of a bummer to go back to that campus without any of my friends. So, if and when I go back to school, it would probably be somewhere in L.A. or New York.

GP: What’s it like to be dubbed “The New Boy Wonder of Voice” by THE NEW YORK TIMES, at 21?

JG: Wow, that newspaper article basically made my head explode. That was such a nice, nice article — and the comments by Barbara Cook and by some of the great people of New York — it just meant the world to me. I was very, very flattered.

GP: Do you have any plans to go on tour?

JG: I am probably going to do a full-length tour, in March. We’re already setting up a 15- to 20-date tour that is looking really, really good. We have some amazing theaters lined up. It’s great. I think, but I’m not sure about this, that we are going to put tickets on sale on Valentine’s Day.

GP: I’m sure your fans will love that.

JG: Yeah, I think we are expecting a pretty quick sell-out. It’s going to be very exciting for me because I’m going to be able to do what I did for the special, but I’m going to be able to do it over and over again for new audiences, and I have the luxury of being able to make it live. It’s not [going to be] recorded, so I can relax about that a little bit more.

GP: Your fans are wonderful, loyal, and dedicated. How does this affect your work?

JG: Oh, it’s essential. To build a fan base like that, they become part of your team and their opinions are very good ones because they begin to know me for everything that I am. They become the real, real fans. It’s very important to keep them in the loop and keep them happy and keep them communicated with. I try to post on the Web site and let them know what’s going on. And then of course we offer them lots of goodies. We offered them the tickets first for the PBS special; we’re going to give them all a free Christmas song. They have been really amazing. Their phone calls to the TV stations, the letters that they write, the letters that they write to me, the meet-and-greets that they come up with, the name they’ve given themselves [Grobanites], it’s all pretty incredible. It’s really flattering, really wonderful to feel that kind of warmth from so many diverse places and people.

GP: I think your relationship, posting messages on the Web site and really communicating with the fans, contributes to their loyalty.

JG: I hope so. I think every performer understands how important the fans are, but especially for someone like myself, where MTV is not in the picture, pop radio is not in the picture. This is primarily a word-of-mouth album. And the people who were there first, these four or five thousand people on the Web site, they’re the ones who believed in it from the beginning, with me and my team, and they helped make it happen. They are very important.

GP: How do you describe your relationship with David Foster?

JG: David Foster has been the real taskmaster, father figure in the recording industry for me. He discovered me. … He was looking for a singer for Gray Davis’ inauguration — it’s funny ’cause he was just reelected — he had an inauguration concert four years ago, and Michael Crawford was supposed to come in and sing “All I Ask of You” from “Phantom of the Opera” and couldn’t make it; he had a rehearsal he had to do. [David Foster] called my voice teacher at the time [Seth Riggs] and said, “Send me some tapes of some people that you have, we need to pick someone right away.” And he listened to some tapes, and my teacher had said, “Go ahead and make a tape, I’m going to send it to somebody.” So I went off and I made one and sent it to him, and he called me up and said, “Hey, David Foster” — and I had no idea who David Foster was — “Yeah, I want you to come down to the Arco Arena in Sacramento and sing for the new governor.” I thought, “Wow, that’s pretty amazing.” And it was really kind of a turning point for me. It was for 20,000 people, and it was the first time I sang anything professionally and it got a great reaction. Then two weeks later, it was kind of the same situation [for the Grammy Awards rehearsal]: “Andrea Bocelli couldn’t make it, and Céline Dion is here, and would you mind learning ‘The Prayer’ and coming down and singing it with Céline?” I was 17. That was a little harder to say yes to because I didn’t really think that I could do it. Because Andrea Bocelli is like the tenor of tenors, and I was a 17-year-old baritone. And I went and I did do it, and David Foster was the guy to say, “Look, you’re not letting me down. Come down here and do this right now.” And I needed that push, and it wound up being a day that changed my life.

GP: Who else has had a great influence on your life? Musicians, songwriters, composers?

JG: The number of angels who have come down from high places and helped me out, that have said, “You can do this and we’re going to help you,” is incredible. David’s been one of them. Walter Afanasieff, who is a huge Grammy Award-winning writer/producer, is another. David and Walter both have a real love of classical music and orchestration and of arrangement and they look at this as a challenge, but also as a chance for them to stretch their arms out a little bit and try something new. Everyone in this business, to a certain extent, is dictated by formula. When they sit down at a piano, generally speaking, they’ve got orders to come up with that next catchy tune that we’re going to put on the radio and sell a million records. So, when this project was starting and I was trying to find songs and … looking for people to do things with, they kind of looked at this as something refreshing to sit down and play, something that they would want to play over and over again — not because it’s got that tune that nobody’s going to be able to get out of their head. They wrote some beautiful music together. The first song I recorded was “Gira Con Me”; I heard it and I said, “Wow, this is really incredible, guys.” I learned a lot from the great writers — David, Walter. John Williams and I got to work together on the AI soundtrack, on the song “For Always.” That was a thrill and an honor. Ennio Morricone wrote two songs on the album. So I learned a great deal. I sat back and I watched and I learned a lot. And I love to write as well, so I hope to do some collaborating on the next CD.

GP: Oh, you do?

JG: Definitely. I’ve been writing all my life, but when you have those kinds of people collaborating on your album … if they had said to me, “We really don’t know what to do,” I probably would have sat down and come up with a few things. But man, the amount of beautiful music that was handed to me for this CD, I was so honored to have it, I figured, sit back and learn for now.

GP: When do you expect to release your next album?

JG: The next album will hopefully be out in October of 2003.

GP: When you mention the formula, I think that’s very interesting, because you do seem to be outside of any formula one could name. I know you have mentioned that folks at record stores just don’t know where to put your CD.

JG: Well, yeah, it’s very, very difficult, and I have been so blessed and so happy to have the success that I’ve had on the CD, which went double platinum in America, and we’re almost at three to four million worldwide. It has been incredible, but even still, there are so many people out there who just don’t know where to put it or are afraid to enjoy it or afraid to buy it because it doesn’t fit into a formula. And it really kind of opened my eyes to the fact that there is such a risk when you try to break a mold, even a little bit. And it’s why so many people are pressured not to, which is why I give so much kudos to people like David and Walter for deciding to take this on and put so much of their power and money into [it] because, to a certain extent, whenever you decide to go away from what is usually formula and pop, pop rock — and don’t get me wrong, I love that kind of music and that’s the kind of music that makes the world go ’round right now — when you don’t do that, you are going to be discriminated against a little bit. It’s my job now for the rest of my life, I think, to win over those people that are scared of it or aren’t willing to give it a chance.

GP: What are you listening to these days?

JG: What am I listening to? I love world music. I’m listening to a lot of people. I’m listening to Peter Gabriel. Actually an artist I found out about from him, who has a new CD out, called Youssou N’Dour. He’s amazing; he’s an African singer. I’m listening to Coldplay, Radiohead, Björk, Depeche Mode.

GP: Who is the African singer?

JG: Youssou N’Dour, he’s the biggest pop star in Africa, and he has just an incredibly beautiful voice. That’s the thing, I’ve been able to travel around the world this last year and one of the most fun things for me to do is go into music stores around the world and say, “Look, who are your biggest artists here?” And just listen to what the differences are between the cultures and what’s big over there compared to what’s big here. And hopefully find some artists to work with on the next CD and kind of bridge the gap.

GP: That’s a great idea. So, is Youssou N’Dour in your CD player right now?

JG: Actually yes, in my car.

GP: You have had the opportunity to work with some amazing performers. Anyone else that you are hoping to sing with?

JG: I am very much looking forward to singing with a woman in Oslo, Norway. I’m going to be singing for the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo, and I’m going to do “The Prayer” with an enormously popular Scandinavian singer who is just now breaking in[to] America, her name is Sissel. I have not met her yet, but I’ve been a fan of hers for a while, and I am really looking forward to singing with her. I know we have been looking forward to singing with each other for a while. That will be a great time for me. I love Oslo, Norway. My whole mother’s side of my family is from Norway, and I always feel very, very good when I get over there. That will be a thrill for me. [Listen to an interview with Sissel on NPR's MORNING EDITION.]

Other than that, people I’d like to work with, it’s hard to say, because I have … people who are my fantasy duets that probably, honestly, [it] would be very hard for us to work together. I could say I would love to sing with Björk. But quite honestly, what would we do together? I think it would be kind of a challenge, although that would be really amazing. Sometimes the best collaborations are the ones that are the most unexpected. Certainly on this album, the people that I wound up working with are not the people that I sat around dreaming of working with for my entire life. They were people that kind of came about through fate and it just wound up really, really working. I hope to keep that relaxed feeling about it for the next CD and whatever comes, comes, and we’ll just see what happens.

GP: I have to tell you that since seeing the TV special, I have not been able to get “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word” out of my head, just from that little snippet that you did. Do you think you’ll do an album with songs like that on it?

JG: I think it’s almost positive. This debut album definitely has a mood to it and it has a style to it and it has a feeling to it that’s similar from beginning to end. Is it everything I want to tackle artistically? Absolutely not. It’s a small amount and it’s a style of music. And I’m not going to go too far away from that, but there is a lot more of me that I’d like to get out there, and certainly there are different types of songs that I would like to try singing. And I hope to do that.

Yeah, that little snippet was fun to do. It was cool for David to do that. I’m sure it probably looked pretty scripted on stage, but I swear, I had no idea he was going to say, “Come over and play some piano.” Because I think I had told a couple of people, “You know, if he asks me to go play the piano and I don’t know about it — !” That was totally unscripted, and when he told me to go do that in front of all those people, I was like, “Ugh, just go do it.” Bite my tongue and just go do it. And that song was the first thing that came into my head.

GP: It looked very natural. You mention musical theater possibly in the future; do you have any plans to pursue acting?

JG: Actually, yeah. I’m glad that you brought that up. I’m looking at a lot of scripts right now. Doing the small amount of work that I did on ALLY MCBEAL was just so inspiring to me and so much fun because as a singer you really are acting. You have to find something within you for every song that you sing and then express it to an audience, and it’s the same thing you’re doing with spoken word, you’re just not singing the words. I’ve always had a great fondness for acting. I love it. I’d love to do more of it, whether it be plays or TV or film. We’ll see. There’s not a whole lot of time for anything like that right now, but in the future I think, hopefully, definitely.

GP: You mention in the special that you play the drums and the piano, and obviously you sing. Any other instruments?

JG: In terms of playing instruments, I am very much interested in world instruments, although I’m not really that good at any of them yet. I’m trying to learn the uilleann pipe, which is one of the instruments featured in the special. I am a real great fan of that instrument, and I love other Irish instruments, the Irish low whistle and things like that. But piano and drums are really the main instruments that I play.

GP: Okay, so, five years from now, at the tender age of 26, where will you be?

JG: Oh man, I’ll be 26 years old. Gosh, I’m getting old.

GP: Ancient.

JG: Yeah, five years from now — so much has happened in the last five months, let alone the next five years. I get phone calls every other day that just blow my mind. I’m like, “Wait a minute, I’m going to be doing this!”

In five years … well, I could hit a huge peak and fall off the face of the earth in five years. Who knows what will happen in five years? I hope that in five years it does what has happened in the last year, a slow, slow but steady climb, and I hope that I’m able to not do everything that I’d ever want to do in the next five years. I hope that I always give myself room to grow and room to learn, and I hope I don’t rest too much. And I hope that I’ll be able to check off at least a few things on the list that I’d like to do — write music, do a little more acting, and in five years I’d like to have at least three more albums out. So we’ll see. A few tours. Who knows, marriage, couple of kids, grandkids?

Interview by Samantha Gleisten for GREAT PERFORMANCES Online conducted in November 2002.

Josh Groban may not win an award at the next MTV Video Music Awards show or be heard on many radio stations, but he is steadily rising in popularity as more and more people discover his brand of classical pop. Despite limited radio play and a modest presence on the pop-music circuit, Groban’s self-titled debut album has gone double platinum in the United States and sold almost four million copies worldwide. Not to mention the fact that the CD has remained on The BILLBOARD 200™ for almost as long as it has been available, soaring as high as number 8.

The 21-year-old singer has all the makings of an American idol: a strong baritone belt, a face that could easily appear on the cover of PEOPLE, and extremely devoted fans. But Groban doesn’t sing catchy pop tunes, he sings romantic ballads in English, Italian, and Spanish, and his rise to prominence is the stuff that dreams are made of.

Four years ago, when Groban was a youthful 17, multi-Grammy-winning producer David Foster found himself in need of a singer to fill in for Michael Crawford at an inauguration party for the newly elected governor of California, Gray Davis. Foster called Groban’s voice teacher at the time, Seth Riggs, and asked for some tapes. Groban’s was among those that Foster received.

Foster recognized something special in Groban’s submission and called on him to sing at the governor’s gala. Groban’s performance marked the beginning of a fantastic series of events that have catapulted him into the eyes, ears, and living rooms of millions. As Foster explains in JOSH GROBAN IN CONCERT, “It only happens a few times in a lifetime that a tape sticks out so dramatically. … I heard all these other tapes and they were all good, but when your voice came on it was just breathtaking. … There is such a place in this world for your voice.” And together, they have been finding that place.

Shortly after Groban’s successful substitution, Foster called on him again, this time to stand in for Andrea Bocelli and sing “The Prayer” with Céline Dion at the 1999 Grammy Awards rehearsal. Though initially hesitant and more than a little nervous, Groban came through, and while Bocelli actually sang at the awards ceremony, Groban had been noticed. Grammy host Rosie O’Donnell was the first of many in the entertainment industry who was taken with the sheer vocal power of the young talent. She immediately booked him on her talk show, jokingly referring to him as “opera boy.”

With Foster’s guidance, Groban performed at industry-related charity events, which is where he was seen by the creator and executive producer of ALLY MCBEAL, David E. Kelley. Kelley was so impressed by Groban’s performance that he created the role of Malcolm Wyatt for him on the 2001 season finale of the series. Groban’s appearance as Malcolm, an awkward high school student with angelic pipes who sues a girl who breaks her promise to accompany him to the prom, and winds up stunning the high school with a song, elicited thousands of e-mail messages from fans eager to find out more about this new singer.

Groban’s career was launched. Having already secured a record deal with 143 Records, a joint venture between David Foster and Warner Bros., he went on to reprise his role on another episode of ALLY MCBEAL, perform at other industry events and on television, and sing with Charlotte Church at the closing ceremonies of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.

The rest is history, or at least the making of it. Since then he has continued his swift but steady rise to the top of the music industry. His debut album has seen great success; he has had a major profile on 20/20, which will be rebroadcast on December 20, 2002; and he has appeared on THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW, GOOD MORNING AMERICA, THE TODAY SHOW, and THE TONIGHT SHOW. Now he headlines his own concert special on PBS.

JOSH GROBAN IN CONCERT introduces the singer to those yet unaware of his talent and fuels the ardor of the many who have followed his work. The concert, recorded live on stage at the Pasadena Civic Center, features Groban with an array of special guests, including Andrea Corr, the lead singer of The Corrs, violinist Lili Haydn, composer John Williams, and singer Angie Stone.

Conceived by Groban and Danny Ezralow, and directed by GREAT PERFORMANCES series producer David Horn, the concert successfully showcases Groban’s vocal variety and powerful presence, while highlighting his boy-next-door appeal. With this fortunate combination, Groban immediately draws listeners in and takes them on an emotional journey. Equally able to communicate the work of film composing legend Ennio Morricone and that of adult contemporary icon Richard Marx to his captivated audience, Groban, as a singer and a performer, is winning fans across a very wide spectrum.

–Samantha Gleisten

Samantha Gleisten is a journalist and playwright based in Chicago. Her theater reviews can be found at Centerstage.net.