On Wednesday, Ch. 13 presents two Great Performances programs of special interest to our readers.

At 9:00 PM, Maestro: Portrait of Valery Gergiev

At 10:00 PM, a repeat of Nureyev, the Russian Years, which so many BTers enjoyed the first time. Click -->here for the original thread.

As always with PBS, all are advised to check local listings.

Neither is showing in Chicago.

On the other hand, Chicago does get the Spanish-language PBS digital sub-channel Vme, call sign WTTWDT4. Last Sunday evening, there was an hour documentary on the Alvin Ailey company in the "Dance in America" series; next Sunday there's Matthew Diamond's two-hour program of ABT's Swan Lake.

I happened to see Acts III and IV of the latter a few weeks ago while tinkering with my TV equipment, so I warn you that the camera work is very "busy," but there are some nice glimpses of Gillian Murphy and Carlos Acosta (? I'm not sure of him). This is not HDTV, only digital, and you may get it over the air on channel 11-4 or in your cable system as channel 241 or some other way. (TV reception has gotten very complex, and I think it's going to get worse before it gets better, if it ever does.)

As usual, no ballets in this local PBS area. But if you mean the 2005 Dance in America broadcast of ABT's Swan Lake, O/O was danced by Gillian Murphy, but Siegfried was Angel Corella, not Carlos Acosta. The program consequently won the Emmy Award for "Special Program".

Thank you, 4mrdncr, for upholding BT's standards of accuracy in the case of my (stupid) lapse! When I had a chance to review the end credits I realized my mistake. Sorry, everybody.

But sometimes WTTW (the main channel here, "Channel 11") shows something like these a week or two later than other PBS stations.

This was a fascinating program (Portrait of Valery Gergiev) with some fine ballet clips including Kirov class and Lopatkina's Dying Swan. Then, there she was at Gergiev's office door to complain about the lighting and costumes of some upcoming production and how Vaziev wasn't hearing or listening to her complaints. She asked Gergiev to come to a rehearsal with lights and he scheduled it for her on the spot. The interaction was quite interesting in that she clearly was exercising clout and influence that she knew she had, and Gergiev was listening but also had major attention on a television set that was broadcasting a soccer game. In another segment, he also spoke about his responsibility for upholding tradition and classics. The program also included the final Onegin scene with Hvorostovsky and Fleming as well as an interview piece. Lopatkina, Gergiev and Hvorostovsky all in the same hour! Well worth watching again. I hope PBS sees fit to broadcast again soon.

Thanks for the tantalizing preview, Haglund's!