 |
||
|
|
|
13 Sep 2007
In honor of the 30th anniversary of Metropolitan Opera telecasts on PBS, Thirteen/WNET's Great Performances at the Met series is preparing a special program titled Great Moments at the Met: Viewer's Choice, a showcase of fans' favorite televised Met moments, chosen through online voting on the PBS website. The special countdown show, hosted by Renée Fleming, will air in December.
"We thought it would be fun for opera lovers to have their say," explained Peter Gelb, the Metropolitan Opera's general manager.
Voting for Great Moments at the Met: Viewer's Choice begins next Monday, September 17, at the Great Performances website (www.pbs.org/gperf), where a selection of excerpts from three decades' worth of Met telecasts will be available for screening. Viewers may choose and rank their top-ten favorites. Voting ends on Friday, October 12.
Among the highlights on the ballot are:
- The very first Live from the Met telecast, a 1977 La Bohème starring Luciano Pavarotti and Renata Scotto.
- Plácido Domingo in the title role of Verdi's Otello (1979).
- Leontyne Price in her 1985 Metropolitan Opera farewell as Aida.
- Joan Sutherland as Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor (1982).
- Birgit Nilsson in the searing title role of Strauss's Elektra (1981).
Also on the ballot are highlights from last season's high-definition movie theater simulcasts, all six of which were subsequently aired on PBS's Great Performances at the Met, including:
- Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, with Renée Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky.
- Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, with Juan Diego Flórez, Joyce di Donato, Peter Mattei and John Del Carlo.
- Bellini's I Puritani starring Anna Netrebko.
Send questions and comments to the Webmaster
Copyright © 2010 Playbill, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
