I'm bummed that this Thursday's Live from Lincoln Center telecast, featuring Mark Morris' new large-scale work Mozart Dances, will not be shown in California - on any of our local PBS affiliates. I emailed KCET Los Angeles to ask if they were going to air it, but they said it was pledge month, so "no." This isn't the first time an interesting arts program has gone unaired by our local affiliates - a New York City Ballet broadcast was similarly not aired a few years ago (until the LA Times complained, so they put it on at 11pm), and more recently, all the local affiliates neglected to pick up the last three Great Performances at the Met broadcasts. I wonder why the local PBS stations don't bother to pick up any of this great, unique arts programming. There isn't lack of local interest: for the Met broadcasts, local movie theaters where the Live in HD version of the broadcasts originally aired were jam packed. And regarding Mozart Dances, it will tour to California in the fall - both here in Los Angeles and to Berkeley - so the local arts audience would benefit from a preview. What will the local PBS affiliates air instead? Last year, the Live from Lincoln Center broadcast that was chosen to air was the one that was more boring on television: the New York Philharmonic opening night - not an unexciting event, but on television symphonic music looks far less exciting than dance, a visual art form. Or instead of Met broadcasts this year, they reran Andrea Bocelli's Great Performances concert for the umpteenth time. Why not pick up the new material?
In any case, if you're somewhere that isn't California, particularly the New York area, make sure to watch Live From Lincoln Center at 8pm this Thursday, August 16. Mozart Dances should be quite fun to watch, with choreographer Mark Morris' musicality and his affinity for Mozart. (Check your local listings here.)
(Photo by Stephanie Berger.)
UPDATE 8/20: Thanks for all the comments, guys. If you'd like to get in touch with KCET to voice your comments, click here and choose the appropriate department (usually Viewer Services is the best bet). You can find similar contact information for your local PBS affiliate at their individual web sites.
7 comments:
i can't believe this!! i looked all last night; my sister found that Live from Lincoln Center: Mozart Dances is playing in the Sacramento area on Aug. 21...at 10PM. That slot is listed "To be Announced" in the OC area, let's hope it's going to be filled with Mozart Dances soon.
It's playing like 8 times in Las Vegas (Vegas people are more cultured, I guess!) Wondering if I should visit my relatives there later this week??
Wow - maybe a trip to Vegas is in order... who knew?
Maybe I should modify the title of this post from "California" to "Southern California", since the Sacramento station will be airing it. That is at least close to Berkeley, although San Francisco's KQED does not as yet have it on their schedule.
maybe we should start a petition? is there an email contact we can try to shoot emails to someone in the scheduling department at local stations of pbs?
the sacramento listing is only confirmed on the pbs local listing website...not on tvguide.com or other general tv listings.
That's too bad -- the same thing always happens to my mom, who lives in North Carolina. I'll be excited about a dance performance and tell her about it, and she'll check her local listings and it's not there. I hadn't even realized the PBS stations were all localized until then; I thought they were basically national. They show all this patriotic stuff there instead -- throughout the entire state. North Carolina doesn't strike me generally as cultured as Southern CA, but how are you going to make people more cultured if you don't expose them to some?
My family resides in various towns in San Luis Obispo County and our PBS station is KCET. My mom alerted me to the fact that, instead of Live From Lincoln Center, KCET was showing Elvis Presley. No offense to fans of Elvis, but we are soooo disgusted it's hard to express. We are actively searching for ways to complain to KCET, but the only method we've come up with is to not subscribe--which will have zero effect. Thanks for your blog!
it aired in san francisco on sunday, and is airing here in sacramento tomorrow, and reairing on wednesday.
another pbs "live from lincoln center" that was aired here was the light in the piazza, which I also love. It is surprising how little PBS is aired here in CA. Sondheim's "Company" better be airing here!!
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