Opera Italia - Season 1
Season 1
Episodes
Beginnings
Viva Verdi
The second episode focuses on Verdi, whose operas are central to Pappano's conducting repertoire and the backbone of the international opera scene. It shows how Verdi's music was influenced by composers such as Bellini and particularly Donizetti, whose gothic masterpiece Lucia di Lammermoor is explored with the help of soprano Diana Damrau.
Pappano looks at six of Verdi's most famous works - Nabucco, Rigoletto, Don Carlo, Otello, Falstaff and La Traviata, the last of which Pappano rehearses and conducts at the Royal Opera House with the starry cast of Renee Fleming, Joseph Calleja and Thomas Hampson.
Pappano travels to Le Roncole in northern Italy where Verdi was born amidst a turbulent political environment, and politics became a major influence on Verdi's operas in later life. He conducts Va Pensiero from Nabucco at a vast open-air concert in Naples, a chorus which was to become a powerful symbol of political unity for the Italian people.
The Triumph of Puccini
The final episode is devoted to Puccini, the worthy successor to Verdi. Puccini's operas are cinematic in their scale with ravishing, passionate and clever music, as he took Italian opera into the 20th century.
Pappano looks at five of Puccini's most popular operas - La Boheme, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Gianni Schicchi and Turandot. He travels to Rome to meet stage director Franco Zeffirelli and talk about Puccini and Zeffirelli's famous production of Turandot.
Pappano also talks to one of the great Puccini interpreters, the soprano Renata Scotto, about the composer, Madame Butterfly and the role of Mimi in La Boheme. Also featured are soprano Angela Gheorghiu, tenors Jonas Kaufmann and Roberto Alagna and baritone Sir Thomas Allen.
Recently Updated Shows
Welcome to Wrexham
In 2020, Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds teamed up to purchase Wrexham AFC, Wales' oldest professional football club, in the hopes of turning the club into an underdog story the whole world could root for. The worry? Rob and Ryan have no experience in football or working with each other. That said, they are serious about their investment in Wrexham, improving the club and doing right by the townspeople.
FROM
FROM unravels the mystery of a nightmarish town that traps all those who enter. As the unwilling residents fight to keep a sense of normalcy and search for a way out, they must also survive the threats of the surrounding forest – including the terrifying creatures that come out when the sun goes down. In season two, hidden truths about the nature and terrifying origins of the town begin to emerge, even as life for its residents is plunged into chaos by the arrival of mysterious newcomers.
Brilliant Minds
Inspired by the extraordinary life and work of world-famous author and physician Oliver Sacks, Brilliant Minds follows a revolutionary, larger-than-life neurologist and his team of interns as they explore the last great frontier - the human mind - while grappling with their own relationships and mental health.
The Last Woodsmen
The Last Woodsmen takes us deep into the secluded wilderness with these courageous and highly skilled loggers as they literally risk their lives. It's a rarely explored, dangerous business which translates to incredibly engrossing television.
On a floating barge hundreds of miles from civilization, veteran logger Jared Douglas puts everything on the line to harvest the largest timber in the world. One misstep in this high-risk industry could cost tens of thousands of dollars, or even a life. Joining him at the edge of the world is a tight-knit crew of lumbermen who, with only axes and hand-held power saws, take down massive, highly valuable trees that can be worth up to $70K each.