PBS's Great Performances Season Includes Renée Fleming and Angels in America Opera

By Ben Mattison
October 17, 2005

PBS's upcoming Great Performances season will include soprano Renée Fleming in concert, a documentary about the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and a broadcast of Peter Eötvös's 2004 opera Angels in America.

The Fleming concert, to be broadcast November 30, was recorded at Germany's Mainz Cathedral. The program includes sacred Christmas music; the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen accompanies Fleming, with Trevor Pinnock conducting.

Also coming up is a broadcast of Stravinsky's opera The Nightingale on December 21. James Conlon conducts the Opéra National de Paris orchestra; soloists include Natalie Dessay. On January 1, 2006, PBS will broadcast the Vienna Philharmonic's traditional New Year's Day Concert; Mariss Jansons conducts.

During their December pledge drives, PBS stations will broadcast a performance by jazz crooner Michael Bublé and two Barbra Streisand specials.

Planned for winter and spring 2006, but not yet scheduled, are the Ailey documentary, which examines the troupe's recent tour to Russia and its move into an ambitious new space; a made-for-television version of Angels in America, the opera based on Tony Kushner's play; a documentary about the life and career of soprano Beverly Sills; a concert performance of the musical South Pacific taped at Carnegie Hall; and the Paris Opera Ballet in George Balanchine's Jewels.