Coming Up on Great Performances

By Michelle Michalos

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

This season, Great Performances features an eclectic mix of shows, ranging from a “live film” interpretation of Verdi’s Rigoletto to a guitar festival featuring Eric Clapton. Check out a lineup of what’s coming up:

May 26 at 8 p.m. – Iphigenie En Tauride: Susan Graham and Plácido Domingo star in Gluck’s take on the primal Greek myth, conducted by Patrick Summers.

May 31 at 8 p.m. – Carnegie Hall 120th Anniversary Concert with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: Carnegie Hall commemorates its 120th anniversary with a gala concert featuring Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic, with special guests Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham, and Audra McDonald.

June 1 at 9 p.m. – Nixon in China: John Adams conducts his opera about Nixon’s 1972 encounter with Mao, directed by Peter Sellars in his Met debut and starring James Maddelena as Nixon.

June 5 at 9 p.m. – Jackie Evancho: Dream with Me in Concert: 10-year-old soprano Jackie Evancho makes her solo concert debut, performing interpretations of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Pie Jesu” and Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro.”

June 6 at 9:30 p.m. – Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival 3: In June 2010, Eric Clapton gathered the world’s most talented guitar players at the third Crossroads Guitar Festival. All profits benefited The Crossroads Centre in Antigua, a treatment and education facility Clapton founded to help people suffering from chemical dependency.

July 7 at 8 p.m. - Don Carlo: British theater director Nicholas Hytner makes his Met debut with Verdi’s historic epic starring Roberto Alagna and Simon Keenlyside.

July 15 at 9:30 p.m. – Rigoletto from Mantua: Plácido Domingo stars in Andrea Andermann’s cinematic interpretation of the Verdi opera, recorded live last September in Mantua, Italy.

Plàcido Domingo and Julia Novikova in 'Rigoletto from Mantua' (Cristiano Giglioli)

July 21 at 8 p.m. – Le Comte Ory: Juan Diego Flórez, Diana Damrau and Joyce DiDonato star in Rossini’s French comic opera, directed by Bartlett Sher.

Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Flórez, and the cast of the Met's 'Le Comte Ory' (Marty Sohl)

G. Gagnon

Just a question: Why is it all music and opera? Aren’t there any “Great Performances” of the other arts?
Michelle

Great Performances has featured other arts in the past (dance, dramas like Hamlet and Macbeth, etc), although the upcoming lineup is heavy on music and opera. You can also check out coverage of other arts on Sunday Arts: http://www.thirteen.org/sundayarts/
Ellen

Will Das Rheingold that opened the Met Opera’s 2010-2011 season be
telecast on Great Performances?
John

In reply to G.Gagnon I would like to say that I am enormously grateful for the Great Performances that allow us to see the best of the last (and previous seasons) operas from the Metropolitan. There is no other place that one can see these outstanding productions without great cost. Overall, PBS provides a very reasonable balance amongst excellent, drama, dance, music and public affairs programming that is unmatched elsewwhere.
Lucy

Will you have Lucia di Lammermoor on TV in the near future? I always watch your operas and look forward to Don Carlo.
cora gordon

These are the most fantastic performances! Thank-you, channel 13, for bringing them to our own living rooms.
Michelle

Ellen – Das Rheingold is unfortunately not scheduled to be part of the current Great Performances season.

Lucy – Lucia di Lammermoor will be on Great Performances this season! The date is still TBD, but should be sometime in the early fall.
David Chowes

Superb and eclectic schedule.
Michelle

I stand corrected! It was just announced that Lucia di Lammermoor will air on Sunday, June 26 at 12 p.m. on Great Performances, for those who are interested.
E.W. Keane

Can we look forward to the Met’s recent Die Walkure (telecast in HD to theaters worldwide) as part to the PBS Great Performances series?
Robert White

Friends, I haven’t seen it formally in print, but I believe the Met/Great Performances folks are holding Rheingold and Walkure until they can be telecast as part of a whole RIng cycle– Siegfried and Gotterdammerung will be at the Met and HD in theatres next season, so my best guess is summer 2012 (maybe later, but certainly not before)
A tip of the hat to Channel 13 for seeing that the performances almost always get a Sunday afternoon presentation in addition to one night for many. I’ve visited several senior centers, and such a matinee is the only time these people can see the performances. The range of operas presented has been extraordinary. For those who haven’t seen the Comte Ory, I encourage you to see 3 of the greatest singers before the public today. Now it’s time for me to go to the pledge page and put my signature where my fingers are.