Summary: The story of jazz begins in New Orleans, 19th-century America's most cosmopolitan city. Here, in the 1890s, African-American artists created a new music out of ragtime syncopations, Caribbean rhythms, marching band instrumentation, and the soulful feeling of the blues. This program introduces the pioneers of this revolutionary art form: half-mad cornet player Buddy Bolden, pianist Jelly Roll...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2000
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Summary: As the 1930s drew to a close, swing-mania was still going strong, but some fans were saying success had made the music too predictable. Their ears were tuned to a new sound, suffused with the blues-the Kansas City sound of Count Basie's band, which ignited new musical adventures. By 1938, Basie and his men were helping Benny Goodman bring jazz to Carnegie Hall. Soon Basie's lead saxophonist,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: The stock market surged through the 1920s and jazz was everywhere in America. Now, for the first time, soloists and singers took center stage, transforming the music with distinctive voices and unique stories. This program introduces Bessie Smith, Empress of the Blues, whose songs eased the pain of life for millions of black Americans; Bix Beiderbecke, the first great white jazz star, inspired...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: The social tensions underlying America's postwar prosperity were reflected in the broken rhythms and dissonant melodies of bebop-and in the troubled life of Charlie Parker. Nicknamed "Bird," Parker demonstrated ideas and techniques as overwhelming for musicians of his generation as Louis Armstrong's had been a quarter-century before. But Parker wasn't the only bebop innovator. Dizzy Gillespie...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: Dixieland, swing, bebop, modal, free, avant-garde, these were some of the terms critics used during the 1960s to categorize the diverse manifestations of jazz music. As for the artists themselves, many were desperate for work and headed for Europe, including bebop saxophone master Dexter Gordon. At home, jazz sought relevance. During the Civil Rights struggle it became a voice of protest, while...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: As the Depression dragged on, jazz came as close as it ever would to being America's popular music. Now it was often called swing, and, as this program illustrates, it became the defining music of a generation. Suddenly, jazz bandleaders were the new matinee idols, with Benny Goodman hailed as the "King of Swing," while teenagers jitterbugged just as hard to the music of his rivals: Tommy...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: With farms and factories falling victim to the Great Depression, jazz was one of the few American industries poised for explosive growth. This program explores the art form during the first half of the decade, a period in which New York City usurped Chicago as America's jazz capital, Louis Armstrong revolutionized Broadway song craft, and Chick Webb forged his big-band sound at the Savoy...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: Amid the rise of suburbia, television, rock 'n' roll, and the baby boom generation, jazz lost a beloved and burned-out star: Billie Holiday. But the music still had its two guiding lights. In 1956, the first year Elvis topped the charts, Duke Ellington recaptured the nation's ear with a performance at the Newport Jazz Festival. The next year, Louis Armstrong made headlines when he condemned...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: The flowering of the Jazz Age is a tale of two great cities, Chicago and New York, and two extraordinary artists whose achievements spanned nearly three-quarters of a century. Louis Armstrong was a fatherless waif who grew up on the rough streets of New Orleans, developing his extraordinary gifts before moving to Chicago, where his transcendent sound inspired a new generation of musicians. Duke...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2000
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Summary: When America entered World War II, jazz became part of the arsenal, with bandleaders like Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw taking their swing to troops overseas. For many black Americans, however, that sound had a hollow ring. Segregated at home and in uniform, they found themselves fighting for liberties their own country denied them-as when authorities padlocked the integrated Savoy Ballroom....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: In this program, host Natalie Choquette explains that Tosca is one of the few operas about an opera singer. It’s also one of the most violent, erotic, melodramatic works in the operatic repertoire (which no doubt explains its popularity!), and today this timeless masterpiece is even more convincing than many a reality TV show. No opera needs a diva in the title role more than Tosca, and many...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2004
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Summary: “Welcome to Opera Easy,” says host Natalie Choquette. “If I were to ask you to name an opera set in Japan based on a play by an American playwright and with music composed by an Italian…would you recognize Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly? I hope so because Madama Butterfly is today’s Opera Easy featured work!”
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2004
View online at AVOD
Summary: If I were to ask you what is the most romantic story in history, what would your answer be?” asks program host Natalie Choquette. “Would it be Dante’s Paolo and Francesca, antiquity’s Anthony and Cleopatra, or Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston? Probably not. No, I bet that your spontaneous answer would be that history’s most famous pair of lovers are Romeo and Juliette. And wouldn’t you know it,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, host Natalie Choquette introduces viewers to L’Elisir d’Amore, a charming and romantic comic opera by Donizetti that is set in an Alpine village. The poor, innocent Nemorino is in love with the intelligent and beautiful Adina. He is convinced that only a love potion will allow him to win her. He pays the quack Doctor Dulcamara for the potion with the money he receives for...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: “How does a medieval court jester wind up involuntarily having his daughter assassinated? Stay with us for an intriguing and passion-filled tale of vengeance, love, and betrayal,” says program host Natalie Choquette. “Sound like The Young and the Restless? No, it’s Giuseppe Verdi’s operatic masterpiece, Rigoletto!”
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2004
View online at AVOD
Summary: “At the turn the 20th century, the most popular French opera was not Carmen but an opera whose principal character was the Devil. This 1859 opera was based on one of the most celebrated works of German literature and did nothing less than revolutionize French opera. Welcome to Opera Easy’s featured work: Charles Gounod’s opera Faust,” says host Natalie Choquette.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2004
View online at AVOD
Summary: “Tragedy makes for great opera. Opera is full of stories of unrequited love such as Romeo and Juliet, of jealousy and murder such as Otello, and of ultimate happiness ruined by premature death such as in La Traviata. But of all the tragic tales that inspired composers, one of the most effective and lasting is one inspired by Greek mythology - no, not Oliver Stone’s tragic film adaptation of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, host Natalie Choquette introduces viewers to Die Entführung aus dem Serail. This Mozart rescue opera is set in Pasha Selim’s palace in 18th-century Turkey where Constanze, her maid Blondchen, and the servant Pedrillo are held prisoner. Before Constanze’s beloved, Belmonte, can set them free, he has to deal with the Pasha’s servant, the eunuch Osmin. A series of comic and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: “Opera has its ABCs, the most popular works in the repertoire: A is for Aida and C is for Carmen, but do you know what B stands for? It’s Bohème, and it is the subject of today’s Opera Easy segment,” says host Natalie Choquette.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2004
View online at AVOD
Summary: “There is a rescue opera that is dramatic and comic and is like an episode of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Good versus bad; virtue pitted against evil. Can love conquer all? Can the virtuous prince vanquish all obstacles ? Come and find out,” says program host Natalie Choquette, “as we explore the world of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera Die Zauberflöte - or, if you prefer, The Magic Flute.”
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2004
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Summary: “Here’s a real quiz question. Can you name this famous opera written to an Italian libretto based on a revolutionary French play by an Austrian composer and first produced in Vienna in 1786? Any idea? Well, Opera Easy’s featured work today is - drum roll, maestro - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro!” says host Natalie Choquette.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2004
View online at AVOD
Summary: “If I tell you that today’s Opera Easy is set in Ancient Gaul and features a conquering horde of Roman legionnaires,” says host Natalie Choquette, “you might think that someone has written an opera on the comic strip Asterix and Obelix - but you’d be wrong. No, today’s featured work does include Roman centurions but is centered on one of the most remarkable characters in all of 19th-century...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, host Natalie Choquette introduces viewers to Manon. Manon Lescaut is the heroine of Abbé Prévost’s famous 18th-century novel that French composer Jules Massenet set to music. The young and beautiful Manon falls in love with the gallant Chevalier des Grieux, but her desire for the good life and its material possessions compromises her love and her future. By the time des Grieux...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, host Natalie Choquette introduces viewers to Il Trittico, three one-act operas that make up Giacomo Puccini’s operatic triptych. The River Seine in Paris is the setting for the dramatic Il Tabarro, a gruesome tale of a love triangle, betrayal, and brutal vengeance. In Suor Angelica, the nun Angelica tragically dies of sorrow when informed of the death of the infant child she...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006